– Oh, where are you! Sorry, I didn’t notice. You’re standing too far away.

– Well, hello, my brother by blood, and the enemy in everything else. They say you tried on the Osiris crown? – in a long, wondrous sheepskin coat, he left the ranks of his soldiers and advisers. His dress gleamed blue to his toes. It was sunny outside, but it was still noticeable. Like square screens, separated by yellow metal stripes, and girded with a wide red silk towel. It looks like a bunch of purple egg-shaped bulbs sticking out of his head. This strange hat is called Occuma (religious headdress), something like a crown.

«You were not deceived.» Leaning down, Aprod leaned his elbows against the wall with both hands. – From that day on, I became the new king of this wonderful, prosperous, huge state. If you want to dispute the property, or share the resources that are located behind these magnificent walls, contact the governor Daligen. I am doing his will, just as you are doing the will of Hamhharaf.

– Will of Daligen, nothing to me. The same as for everyone in this ranks. I submit only to the Nahmaut kings. And, your king, if you please recall, by right, it is still considered Shadakh, according to rumors, perished during the seizure of another tribal state in central Africa. Until confirmation of his death is found, according to Shelber’s laws, it is forbidden to elect a new king. In fact, the supreme governors who remained after his departure simply do not want to arrange a power struggle. Admit it, they deliberately made the royal throne an untouchable holy relic. Well, you don’t need a king, your business. You are our brothers, you deserve to determine your own destiny, which I cannot say about these Pithecanthropus. These primates, who call themselves Osiris, allow themselves too much. Piracy, smuggling, fraud, falsehood. Blatant copying of everything that we have. This whole city is sheer falsehood and plagiarism. Independently, these aborigines are not able to put a stone on a stone. They are no different from the Bedubs and the Jews.

– Come on, Maktum, look at these walls, – Aprod disagrees with him. – Aren’t they beautiful? You don’t know what’s inside yet.

«… No,» the high priest shook his head. – Another Jericha. From the fact that you decided to become the king of these monkeys, you dishonor yourself. You will dishonor our great family, and the entire civilization of Nahmau. This fact makes me angry. Both you and I know perfectly well that the situation will not resolve itself. We have no way back. In the end, after all, it was not in vain that I brought here, this, as you allowed yourself to put it, rabble! So let’s see how dear this fake city is to you. – Smiling, Maktum returned to the ranks of his horde. Shouting «Selimu aleikum!!» (translated from the original Nahmaut: Selim with us), gave the command to besiege the fortress.

Wooden towers, twenty meters high, moved forward on small wheels. They were carried by black, terrible monsters, resembling mammoths from afar, with round bodies and six legs. They did not have a head, only a small stone outgrowth. It seems to have been a muzzle covering the mouth. The infantrymen began to quickly reorganize into columns. Like the ancient Romans, they piled on top of each other and covered themselves with shields in anticipation of something incomprehensible.

– What are they up to? – General Beleba ran up to the Rift. Together with the general, archers run into the wall, taking up positions for shooting, around the entire perimeter. Meanwhile, on the second wall, a more impressive and numerous defense was being built.

– I have to admit, I do not know the art of war, – Frowning, Aprod put his hand on the commander’s shoulder, – I trust this battle to you, General.

«Then what’s the use of you?» You do not know how to negotiate, you do not know how to fight, which means that you will not be a king either.

– Maybe you are right. I shouldn’t have left Shelber. – With an arrogant smile, a reproachful look, he examined the approaching horde of unprecedented artificially crossed monsters of Rohvem for the last time. There was no fear in Rift’s eyes. On the contrary, he seemed to mock the horde of fantastic creatures, which, the closer they approached, the more terrified ordinary Osirian soldiers. There was a strange certainty about him.

Seeing all the abomination that appeared on the horizon and not succumbing to even a little fear, you have to be either crazy or immortal. Aprod was neither one nor the other, but he had a trump card in his sleeve, which he was afraid to admit to himself. Having descended from the wall, the governor got into his carriage, heading for a secret, underground exit from the city. The militia commanders decided that he had left the line of defense and focused on an imminent encounter with about five thousand enemies.

When the sediment towers were almost approaching, they suddenly stopped, between the long columns of infantry soldiers hiding under the shields. Separately, the soldiers accompanying these black mammoths cut off the thick ropes that were harnessed to the miraculous beasts. But before, with the help of spears, they knocked out their huge muzzles. From the place where the head should be, the same black, thick tentacles, like an octopus, escaped. Long and oily, they stuck into the ground and, with their help, the blind monsters recognized everything around them. As soon as the cables were cut from them, they rushed forward on the ram, forcing the Osiris to draw their bows. But, before the monsters had time to reach the wall, suddenly, unexpectedly, from loud explosions, sedimentary towers fell forward. From the impact, their wooden hulls shattered to smithereens. And, as it turned out, these are not sedimentary towers at all. From the wreckage, slowly, like caterpillars, crawled out some mechanical iron pillars, which, crawled to the wall, also between the rows of Fimirel soldiers. These are gigantic machines, propelled by sliding and sliding transverse rings along the entire length of the greasy body. Inside these gizmos, someone sat at the helm and operated them. Powered by fuel oil, they spewed smoke from the wide nostrils of their dragon muzzles.

– Oh, noble Khalidan, Fatak is the patron saint of fire and water, Siron is the father of earth and sky. Give strength to survive this day, – whispers through tears General Beleba, remembering all the Osirian gods. He dispersed his army half on the walls, half inside the city, scattering detachments among corps from small groups, in ambushes prepared in advance in case of war. Underground, air, underwater and others. Right now, the main thing for the Vayelons is not to sow panic. But the appearance of the enemy inexorably forces you to do it. The fat, elephant-like monsters slammed into the wall as expected. Their tentacles spread out in different directions, like suckers glued to concrete. With some acid pouring from their tongues, they dissolved the stone, the base of the wall, turning it into damp, soft sand. With a wave of his hand, the commander of the left flank of the first wall with a long, curly beard yelled something. From his side, unusual arrows flew with massive balls wrapped in a hard shell, instead of sharp points. The same flew from the right flank and from the center. Falling on wild beasts, these arrows exploded with incredible force. So, in the central part, the archers, who were at the ready, hid from the rising flame. The monsters growled loudly, groaned, gasped, but then they stopped. When the smoke cleared, they lay motionless in the same place where they stood. They were not torn to pieces, but, bless you. Columns of enemies, escaping with shields, moved forward in the same formation. Walking in leg, in a squat, they began to break into the holes that the mutants managed to make. The archers again loaded explosive arrows, and were ready to release them at the columns, hiding with their shields, but their bearded commander raised his crossed arms up, giving the signal to put aside. He was waiting for these iron lizards who were about to get to the wall. What will they do? I was tormented by the question of the commanders of the defense. Once in the immediate vicinity, loud bangs were heard, from the collision of snakes with walls. They easily rammed the crumbly stone blocks exactly where the terrible monsters loosened them with their saliva. At the back of the snakes, doors opened and soldiers rushed into them like a river. Running along the protected iron corridors, they freely ran out to the other side of the wall. And there, they did not run to the sides, joyfully rejoicing that they had broken through. They set up strange mechanisms, like cannons, or small catapults, towards the second wall. From these guns, huge iron spears began to fly out, piercing the very top of the second wall. Iron cables were tied to spears as long as a pillar. Elongated cylindrical boxes were lifted along these cables. Like the cabins of ski lifts, with a fairly high speed. The soldiers of the second wall did not wait for these things to rise to them. Archers launched fire from a hail of explosive arrows, in an attempt to shoot down armored elevators, of unknown purpose.

Meanwhile, near the first wall, huge gears crunched and bearings creaked. Steel snake heads slowly began to rise upward. The moment came when you can shoot, and explosive arrows, like a river, flew straight into the jaws of mechanical monsters. Numerous explosions crumpled them well, but did not disable them. Some parts of the crawling cars flew off, but this did not stop them at all. Pressing their heads against the wall, the lower part, they crawled upward, slowly, like snails, piercing small spinning disks, like gears, with sharp tips. These things rose to the very top, and, like pillars, froze in place. Most of the enemy troops, remaining for the time being, behind both walls, continued to climb up the serpentine backs, like a ladder, clinging to spikes and protruding rings. General Beleba gave a general command to the troops of the first wall to leave it as quickly as possible, strengthening the defense on the second. When the last Osiris soldiers fled, in the towers, they clamped special levers, and from under the floor, in the wall, numerous pipes and gas nozzles protruded. As soon as the enemy stepped on the wall, it burst out like a torch with a blue, burning flame, over its entire surface, incinerating every enemy alive. A pleasant sight. But, it’s too early to rejoice. Realizing that the top of the wall was on fire, they widened the narrow holes in the bottom made by their own monsters and created large passages with their explosives and cannon catapults. The whole army rushed there, as if through a gate. Only two hours have passed, and the first wall has already been overcome. It becomes more and more difficult to contain the rampage of the enemy. Now they also opened fire. Yes, just what. Throwing back their shields, the soldiers kept «shooting spears» ready. Having created around them, a continuous rumble, like popcorn popping in the microwave, they introduced the enemy, more into bewilderment than horror. The Osiris army encountered firearms for the first time. Their infantrymen fired competently, poorly hidden archers. The archers on the second wall ran out of arrows. They spent all of them on cabins that climbed up on cables, which were empty. They were launched on purpose so that the enemy would spend all his explosive ammunition. Enemies reload their guns very quickly. For about five seconds, pulling on the sleeve, on the side, reminiscent of a drum on revolvers, and putting powder capsules there. Distracting attention to themselves, they allowed the iron snakes to descend from the first wall, and crawl into the very holes below, which they themselves rammed. This method of crawling iron snakes is not used for the first time. It was already practiced by King Shadakh, more than two hundred years ago, when he took the double walls of the fortress of Jericha. But, then the events were not so large-scale, and these snakes were much smaller. The Nahmau of Rohvem adopted this tactic, similarly, by resting their heads against the wall and crawling up, the machines practically paved a bridge between Vayelon and the treacherous Fimirelians. However, on the second wall, an unpleasant surprise awaited them. Even though the arrows have run out. Ammunition was still more than enough. Instead of explosive arrows, huge barrels of gunpowder were thrown at them, roaring so hard that the earth shook in the area. The mechanisms of the steel worms could not stand and, having jammed, most of them collapsed to the ground, at the same time crushing their own soldiers. But, some creeping ringed creatures still managed to climb. Only three pieces, but that was enough. The mouths of these lizards opened and began to spew hellfire, setting fire to the troops of the Osiris, just as they burned the Fimirelians on the first wall. The commanders of the defense, once again, went astray. They thought that through their mouths, the soldiers would rise, and pulled as many people as possible to them to fight. But it was not there. Scattering to the sides, the survivors of the war, to save themselves, jumped from the wall, in their armor hot as frying pans. The battle was almost lost. Vayelon’s collapse was only minutes away. Reinforcements from the south did not have time to approach. Satisfied priest Maktum, sits in his war chariot, just before entering the first gates, as if waiting for them to be opened, and he will ride with honor along the central street of the captured state. On the back line of the enemy, a defense was lined up of a thousand riders on camels and horses, and the same number of infantrymen. They knew that reinforcements were coming to the Osiris and were ready to meet them. Reinforcements arrived a little earlier than expected. And, it was not the southern army. They were the Shelber Nahmaw, led by Apod Rift!

By some miracle, he managed to persuade the governors to give an army to protect the Osirian state, and, to have time to drive him seventy kilometers from here. But, they were a little late. On the other side of the city, over these beautiful walls, enemy airships were already flying. From the air, they began bombing the largest objects and places of concentration of people. On the second line of defense, a fierce battle between the Osiris and Fimirelians unfolded, at the same time the battle began behind enemy lines with the knights of the Shelber governors. Outnumbered, they ruthlessly defeated two thousand opponents, and moved on to the burning city walls. They rescued frightened helpless children, weeping women and old people. Noble knights of foreigners were greeted as heroes who had no weak points. They, like fairy-tale characters, are completely invulnerable. The city dwellers did not even pay attention to the fact that in the formidable battle not only did not one Shelber warrior die, but not one of them was even wounded. They unrestrainedly slashed soldiers, animals and various monsters surrounding them from all sides, as if they were enjoying it. Ultimately, using their carriage-mounted machine guns, they shot down the deadly airships. These fantastic, rapid-fire weapons simply thrilled the imagination. They were transformed, right when shooting, and in an interesting way. Gold glasses, like the sleeves of which the body consisted, jumped out, over the entire surface, on folding holders, and, shifting, moved back. When fired quickly, these magical things looked like seething, self-loading golden bubbles, emitting a hail of fiery rays. Vayelon’s men were triumphant. Crazy with happiness, they fell at the feet of their heroes – the omnipotent guards of Shadakh, in which a curse had long been sitting, raising their strength and power to boundless and immeasurable proportions. By order of Daligen, in the forests of Shelber, they went into hibernation for the coming decades, along with the rest of the population of the valley. They will remain there, waiting for their awakening, taking root and mummifying.

Aprod Rift ascended the throne in triumph. He ruled like a true king, marrying an Osirian woman and founding his own dynasty. However, over time, he began to devote little time to politics, and willfully, most of the power he entrusted to the council. He dedicated his life to science, philosophy, entertainment, music and culture. The first theater, a children’s school, and numerous monuments were built in his honor. Many praising books have been written about him, although Aprod himself denied the cult of personality, considering this phenomenon harmful to society. Namely, the cult of personality was the reason for his self-restraint by power. Until his death, he maintained good relations with the Shelber Valley, and bequeathed to cherish them to his only son, heir and future king, a half-breed. The Rohvem Valley fell into oblivion. Quite interesting changes have taken place there, though. The Hamhharaf clan fell. The heiress of the dreadful queen Biel the husband-hating, her own daughter, was not far from her mother. By the way, after the death of Maktum, during the siege of Vayelon, there were no serious contenders for the throne, and if they did appear as a true dictator, she quickly eliminated them. Despite the depressing situation of the people, Biel ruled until old age, falling asleep and choking in a pool strewn with rose petals. Her daughter was also a lesbian and persecuted men for their successes. In some ways, she even surpassed her crazy mother. At festive ceremonies, for example, the new queen ate the fried testicles of her own eunuchs. And at religious rites, during sacrifices, she drank the blood of the most powerful men in order to gain wisdom. Fortunately, she was stopped by the then gaining momentum in politics, the grandson of Maktoum En-Ali, who had been in exile all his life, wandering through the villages of Rohvem. He gathered enough followers, and violently staged a coup d’état. Having publicly outraged the queen, he personally performed not a good procedure, dishonoring her, and gouged out his eyes, taking away to the forest of the dead. Since then, gender issues have only worsened in Rohvem. Constantly hesitating, going to extremes from the stage of matriarchy to the stage of patriarchy and vice versa.