09 24 2025 ☿
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JTPYO – King of the Waste [4] / the blow (excerpt: one of the blows)
Copyright © 2025 by Kristi A. Wilson
(JTPYO – King of the Waste [4] the blow – first published in this blog in 2018)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Which is me.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The tribe is transfixed at a desert oasis in a bad sandstorm. Naxosos and his cohort are trapped in the dining-tent along with others among the Children of God and a few animals.
NOTE: I first published this in this blog in 2018. The text presented here is only a bit changed and/or added to. I think it's actually pretty good. I know a lot of people have read it.
The street language/other vernacular is because I don't feel like thinking up fancy terms for things like "motherfucker" and so on. Maybe later.
FURTHER NOTE: I was just reading this over and it's actually pretty good. It probably will have some stuff added in the finished version, however.
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"Did you ever try to escape, then?" Naxosos said.
"Haha, no, I never did," Joliel replied. "In fact, I didn't want to go to Viragos, I wanted to stay in Cela and be a rich, free landholder and have Thais and Nirith bring you to me. But then we considered they might not be up to the task, so I decided to go." Here he sighed, as though in mildly disappointed resignation.
Naxosos sat up, head cocked to one side. "'Task'…? Why was it a task?"
The sorcerer fixed Naxosos with a half-smile stare that the other held for a long time. Everyone in the dining hall grew quiet. Outside, the wind was abating, though still blowing fitfully in strong gusts. A rope that had gotten loose lashed one side of the tent, making an ominous rattling sound like an animal trying to get out of a trap.
"So that we could exploit you," Joliel finally said, finishing his wine and holding his cup out so Thais could pour for him. "You're a fucking idiot and I told them over and over if we do things this way, your way, we're all just going to end up broke or dead and that will be the end." He drank from his refilled cup. "I still think that." Now he rolled a grape seed around on his tongue and spit it out. "My liege."
No one spoke. Naemas, who had been sitting crosslegged on his couch, suddenly stretched his legs and arms in front of him, scratched his head, yawned hugely, and said, "Don't take it seriously, Naxo. I've heard him sing a different tune before, we all have. Sometimes I think he's goofier about you than I. He's definitely more possessive."
"He just gets excited when we talk about the good old days, you know, when we'd all let ourselves be tied down so diseased rats could chew our feet and so forth," Korsis said. "Darn! Why can't we just have fun like that again?"
"Wasn't that a good time?" Naemas said with a grin. "I liked being bitten by the rabid dog more, though. The visions. The visions."
"Shut up, Korsis," Joliel snarled.
"Don't, you two," Thais said. "These are only words that he's saying, spoken at the table, they harm no one."
"Are you losing money right now?" Naxosos said to Joliel, holding up a hand to keep Thais from saying anything else.
"No," the sorcerer replied with a smirk. "I'm still making it in spite of everything. Too bad you don't want to. Your new kingdom would be here already."
Naxosos stared at Joliel for a long time with a wide-eyed, rather blank expression and swirled the wine around in his cup. The sound of the wind had abated notably and even though there was no real way to see what was going on outdoors, there was a feeling of air freshening a bit, and impending morning.
"Well," Naxosos finally said, "I'm not sure I can say we're doing things my way, or you can." He laughed and drank. "We do things Thais's way here, or so it seems to me. She is the expert at hiding in these desolate places and has her own army; I grew up in a suite of rooms on the third floor of a building in the biggest city in the world. It was a nice apartment, and I did spend time at Sha-halom, but still." Leaning back he stared at the tent roof, that flapped more and more slowly as the storm dwindled. "Weren't you saying – Joliel – that hiding was the better plan when we were headed toward the encounter? And you constantly advised me to avoid the encounter?" He attempted to move his brother now. "This one is putting my leg to sleep."
"I told you he'd stay out," Naimejo grumbled. "Put him on the floor."
Tolalo said, "Naimejo, why don't you get up and help, then?" and frowned at the other priest, who like Naxosos had also been his student throughout his youth.
Ember rose from her couch and said, sounding rather hesitant, "Let me get him, he's not too heavy that I can't pick him up." With many sideward glances at Joliel, she went to Naxosos's chair and tried to lift M'jo, who continued to slumber soundly, from his lap. "Oh, my goodness," she said. "He's like a sack full of rocks."
Naemas jumped up and said, "Let's just put him on the floor," and helped Ember place the sleeping boy, who didn't wake for a second, onto the carpet behind Naxosos's chair.
Joliel said now, "Cela would be real hiding. Even if the Temple knew exactly where to find you, they could never touch you there." Grinning pointedly at Naxosos he waved his hand in a circular gesture, saying "Stay here and all these things, you'll lose, everything nice about it, you'll lose, the chance to have all the nice stuff you wanted and never had, you'll lose, and the girls will forget about you and go with someone else. They always do."
Naxosos blinked at him and said nothing.
Suddenly Naimejo got up. "You said God is with us," he said in an angry undertone to Tolalo. He glared at Joliel, then Naxosos. "Someone else is with us, too." Before anyone could reply, he said, "Where are we supposed to go to piss? They set this damned tent up differently every single time."
Nirith pointed. "It's right through there, Father, but watch out, the room may have filled with sand." Almost at the same time, Thais said mildly: "We set it up differently because the wind is not always the same, Father."
Naimejo looked daggers at Nirith, then at Thais and, saying nothing, he exited through a flap to an outer partition of the tent.
"So," Naxosos said to Joliel, "I am at less risk for mishap in the Celan capitol than anywhere else."
"Absolutely," Joliel began, but before he could say anything else, Naimejo burst back into the dining hall.
"That was fast," Korsis said.
"Everyone get down," the priest said, "and take cover."
Their movements so rapid they were nearly imperceptible, Thais's warriors clustered around the Goddess, then dropped to crouch in a ring about her.
Elsewhere, there was hesitation. "Weren't you going to take a pee?" Nirith said.
"We'll all be peeing in a few seconds," Naimejo said grimly. "Tolalo, something is coming, get ready."
"I don't –" Maynaliel Tolalo began in argument; in a couple of strides, Naimejo was directly before him, glowering: "We aren't supposed to perceive it! Get ready!"
Tolalo stood and faced the end of the tent. Joliel also stood. The people on the floor made sounds of dismay and crawled for couches, pillows, and tables that they could use to protect their heads. Korsis and Naemas got on either side of Ember and Nirith crouched next to Thais.
Thais said, standing, "Naxosos, cover your brother up and stay down. Don't argue."
For a few long, relatively quiet seconds the group in the dining tent remained waiting. The wind only gusted a bit and Naimejo's alarm began to seem an error. The Goddess-on-Earth said suddenly, "Up," and raised her arms. Naimejo and Tolalo raised their arms.
With a sudden, almost gleeful scream, a gale struck the tent like the stamp of a giant's foot. In spite of the force of the blow, the sound of a support snapping somewhere was all too audible and the tent roof began to flap fearsomely, and suddenly was much closer to everyone's heads. There were screams from the assembly.
Naxosos, lying flat down on the carpet behind his fancy new chair, covering his brother with his arm, leg, and cloak, noted that M'jo didn't stir or wake during the entire episode.
The ordeal didn't last long: Within a few seconds, the blow had ceased and the sounds of people crouched on the floor praying and crying became audible.
Into this relative silence came a loud, ominous creak, then a loud splitting noise and, with a heave and crash of piles of casks and other goods going over, another part of the tent settled somewhere with a final muffled thud.
Outside could now be heard the sounds of people in the camp screaming and babbling, and animals bellowing and bleating in fear. In the foyer, the warriors' horses stamped and squealed.
The dining hall remained intact, though the ceiling was a great deal lower and when Thais's warriors stood they had to crouch. "We will see to the horses," Red said to the Goddess, and all but one of the warriors filed out of the dining hall. The horses soon became still.
Joliel said, "Is there any food left?" in spite of the tent roof sagging inches above his head. He began searching among the platters on the table.
"Get up, Naxosos, I trust you are all right," Thais said. Naxosos looked up to see her standing above him, looking as serene as if she had just come from a bath and sleep, barely a hair out of place. "Is your brother all right?"
As he started to stand, his mother blindsided him, almost knocking him over. "I want to leave this terrible place!" she cried, then knelt next to M'jo. "What have they done to him? Is he all right?"
"Your mother also has had too much to drink, Naxo," Thais said in a low voice.
Nirith stood. "I guess Naimejo was right about two things," she said. "I peed myself."
Thais put an arm around her. "Those were good pants," she said.
"I doubt if they are ruined," Nirith giggled, shaking the legs of her voluminous silken breeches tied at the ankles with embroidered ribbons.
M'jo sat up. "It's time for prayers," he said. Now he looked around, his expression changing to one of amazement. "What happened, Mother?" This provoked fresh hysterics from Ember.
Naxosos stood and saw Naimejo squatting on his haunches next to Tolalo, who was sitting on the floor holding his head in both hands.
"Teacher!" he cried. With some effort, he levered himself across the couch formerly occupied by Thais and Joliel, to arrive at Tolalo's side.
"Don't touch me," the elderly monk said in a faint voice.
"Will he be all right? Did he get hurt?"
Naimejo said, "I think he's uninjured."
M'jo stood beside them. "What happened, Naxo?"
"They're supposed to wake up in time for services," Tolalo explained groggily.
"Some of the wind decided to come back for a minute," Naxosos said to his brother.
"Is our master going to be all right?"
"I'll be fine, M'jo," Tolalo said. "Why don't you and Naimejo help me get up? Put your sleeves over your hands."
They heard people outside saying "praise God" now.
"Everyone must be all right, but let's go see," Thais said. "Will you walk with me, Naxo?"
"With pleasure," he replied.
The encampment had been at the small oasis, named Akkarima, for four days now. It was barely a dip in the landscape some miles from low, rocky, ridged foothills, with an intermittent shallow trough of water big enough for everyone to drink, as long as they took turns and went slowly to keep it from getting too low. A few drooping trees marked the oasis, which otherwise would have been next to impossible to find for someone without navigational equipment and skill, as the water was often below the sand.
Exiting the tent, the door of which had faced the oasis with the main part of the camp in a semicircle all around, they saw a remarkably high hill of sand now where the water and trees had been. A couple of tents had been swallowed by the sand as well. Another, smaller mound was built up behind the dining tent, and the far end of the tent was collapsed and full of sand, two tent poles had broken, and some awnings were missing, though the main part of the tent was only partly collapsed.
"Oh, what happened to our water?" Thais said. She and Naxosos stood just outside the dining tent. Off to the side the warriors watched over their horses, all of whom were unhurt, and the herd animals, whose keepers had sheltered them in their own enclosures during the storm, milled around.
Thais took Naxosos's arm and they walked toward the incredible hill that had grown in front of the dining hall tent in only a few hours' time. The sky was beginning to lighten behind them and the enormous dune was bluish-pale against the black sky and stars in the west. "And our trees."
"Can this be moved?" Naxosos said.
With a fond chuckle: "There's more water not far away. Just a short march. Besides, the wind will probably move this sand in a short or long time, and the water will be there again."
Joliel was standing next to them now. "So much for this little camping spot," he said noncommittally.
"You didn't cause this, did you?" Naxosos said.
"Naxo!" Thais warned.
Joliel said, "Didn't it look like Naimejo caused it, if anybody did? Probably because he was getting pissed?"
"Joliel, stop," Thais said.
The people saw them and started coming up to them, reporting that everyone was all right, there were no casualties except for bumps and bruises, and there may have been lost a couple of tents and some gear, the big tent was damaged, but that was all, praise God. Already men had gotten shovels and started to dig for the things that had been covered.
"None of my things was damaged or got blown away, praise God," Joliel said in a low but audible sneer, mocking Thais.
"The dining tent and most of the things in it are mine, Joliel," Thais said irritatedly.
"Did you do this for some reason, Thais?" Naxosos wondered aloud.
"What?!" she snapped, and her hand on his arm became a vice.
Joliel laughed. "She never does it, she just causes it!"
"My dear," Naxosos said, "you're hurting me."
Thais let go of him and walked a few steps toward the mountain of sand, where she stood with her back to everyone. Nirith walked up now. "Uh oh," she said to Naxosos.
Everyone else that had been in the tent when they had left now came out, more or less praising God that their lives had been spared, then expressing shock and dismay at the massive heap of sand covering the oasis. Naimejo and Tolalo came last, and Naimejo appeared worried as he followed the elderly monk. Nirith ran up to Tolalo, exclaiming over his state, but Tolalo waved her way. "Don't touch me, daughter, I'll be all right."
"Did you get hit in the head?"
"Bless you, my dear," Tolalo chuckled, "no, I didn't. I'm unhurt. But I'm not going to dance a jig to prove it. If you want to help, find a jar of wine that isn't spilled in there and get a wet cloth." She ran into the tent, from which Korsis and Naemas now emerged, one on each side of Ember with M'jo trailing along behind. Ember was crying and angry, and neither Korsis nor Naemas seemed eager to touch her, though both said soothing things in an effort to calm her.
"Did you make that, you conceited asshole?" Joliel jeered in Naimejo's direction. Naxosos saw the sorcerer grin and at the same moment, Naimejo's face became wreathed in a dark, rageful scowl. "I'll bet you're still not satisfied, either!"
Before anyone could say anything else, Naemas left Ember's side and in two swift strides stood in front of Joliel, who paid little heed to him and actually peered around him to keep eye contact with Naimejo. Without warning, Naemas swung a haymaker from somewhere around his knees; it made contact with the sorcerer's face with a loud, pulpy-sounding crack. Soundlessly, Joliel crumpled and his staff hit the ground, and a collective loud gasp, and then an even louder silence, arose. Ember stopped crying and her face went pale. Even the animals became quiet.
"God forgive me," Naemas said, shaking his hand as he stood over the sorcerer's still, black form. "But I'm sick of your shit today and you won't say that to my brother, you suicidal fool."
"Naimejo does need to control his pride and anger," Tolalo said. "I have spoken to him so many times about it." Now Nirith came dashing from the tent with the requested towel and jar, and screeched to a stop, eyes wide as she saw Joliel lying immobile, staff beside him, in the sand.
"Naxosos, Joliel, is there anyone else you would like to blame for this unusual climactic occurrence, which if you studied more, Naxosos, you would realize is not all that unusual?" Tolalo said, seeming not to realize Joliel was down and motionless.
Thais turned toward the group and walked slowly back, where she stood looking down at Joliel as he lay on the ground. Nirith dropped to all fours and crept toward him. "I think he's really hurt, Thais," she said.
"No, he's not," Thais said. "He's pretending to be hurt so he can have a chance to hurt Naemas and I cannot permit that. Rise, Joliel."
At first the sorcerer didn't move, but then he rose to a skulking crouch and everyone was surprised to see that he was bleeding. Blood ran from his nose and when he spoke his teeth were full of blood. In the murk of early morning the blood appeared almost black. "Look, Naemas," he hissed, "you've made me bleed. Congratulations." He stood and all heard him take a deep breath.
Korsis said, "Move, Naemas," at the same time Joliel spat, and a large gobbet of bloody saliva flew toward him, which he managed barely to dodge. The bloody glob struck the sand and everyone backed away from it, including the Goddess-on-Earth.
"Try that again, faggot. I hope you try it again," Joliel said. "Now or in the future. Just try it." Naemas glared at him but said nothing. "Any time, just try it."
"You will cease," Thais said and held a hand out toward Joliel, but the sorcerer stepped toward Naxosos now.
"I will not cease," he said and pointed at Naxosos. "This one doesn't know what is going to happen, he doesn't have any skill to see his own future, he is merely another expensive weapon that's really hard to use and more likely to destroy its user."
"I will place an injunction on you," Thais said. Nirith stood now, went to Thais, and pulled on her sleeve.
"No, no, don't," she said, her eyes wide with worry.
Joliel laughed and pointed at Nirith. "Naxo, she thinks more poorly of you than I. She's the one who talked me into coming here and participating in this farce, because she said it was known you didn't value your own life or fortune, and if we couldn't control you, we could simply kill you."
Nirith's face became a mask of panic. With a wild cry, she threw herself at Naxosos's feet. "No, my lord, no my lord, no my lord, no my lord, I didn't say it I didn't say it I didn't say it, please, I didn't say it!" Clutching at his boots she wept and groveled.
"And if you were to die, we could take all your things and your family to Cela and Korsis would pretend to be you."
Ember gasped loudly and she and M'jo clutched at one another. Korsis yelled, "What did you just say, motherfucker?" and Nirith screamed again and wailed, "Nooo, no, no my lord, please I never said that! I never said it!" simultaneously.
"And we would have the new kingdom without you."
Naemas laughed grimly as Korsis now rushed up and leaned into Joliel's face. "How dare you, how fucking dare you, put your foul words in my mouth like that, I would never do that to my friend, I would never do that to our King, you're the one who's a fucking idiot – "
"You'll do what you're told," Joliel sneered. "And you've already said you would imitate him at need." He shrugged. "Locusts and grasshoppers."
Korsis, whose handsome face was seldom seen in any expression but a mildly supercilious, cultured grin, went livid and his white teeth showed in a snarl. For one second, it seemed that he might simply leap upon the sorcerer and rend him. "I'll kill him, Thais," he said. "He thinks I can't but I can and I will. I know how to do it. Terenorint will help me, he hates this one! That's why he came here, your family wants this one dead," and pointed a finger at the sorcerer's skinny chest.
"I do not hate the druid, you are lying!" Terenorint boomed as he ran to them. "I do not hate you, Joliel! You have saved the warriors' lives and the Goddess's life and the Celan tells stories, everyone knows he is untrustworthy."
During this time Nirith screamed, babbled, and protested her innocence at Naxosos's feet in what seemed true terror. All the rest of the tribe had gathered around to gaze in horrified silence, except for the animals, who roamed to and fro at the foot of the sand mountain, looking for the water that had been there but was no more.
Thais said, "Nirith, this is quite enough." She walked to Naxosos's side and put her hand on his arm. "We're not angry at anyone." In the washed-out light of early morning, the people assembled muttered anxiously at the sight of tears shining on her face. "Get up, Nirith."
"She did say it," Joliel said. "Everyone heard her. Thais knows; she just doesn't have enough respect for you to tell you, Naxo."
"You're trying to get someone to kill you, imp," Korsis said. The dancer was having a hard time controlling his ire, and paced back and forth now, fists clenched. "He wants you to kill him, Naxo, that's why he's here, he feels that you are the only one who can do it, but that's not true, anyone with a sharp stick can do it. He hates himself and he hates his life and the evil that he's been a party to. I should have killed him long ago. I wanted to."
Joliel said, "I extend the same invitation to you as to Naemas: Any time. I would say to you as to him, any time, faggot, but since you're Celan you'd take that as an invitation."
Naxosos said, "This is really a non-issue, here. Obviously, we've all had too much to drink and we should be at our prayers. Tolalo is indisposed and he should be resting."
"I'm doing better!" Tolalo called out. A couple of young women were now giving him some wine and one was letting him lean on her shoulder.
"We saw in divination that it would be Naemas," Joliel said now with a leer made more fearsome by the blood in his teeth. "Not me, nor anyone, but Naemas who undoes you, Naxosos. The Prince of the Air was being truthful with you."
"Liar!" Naimejo cried now in a voice he seldom used except for oration or song. "What purpose is served by having this liar, this worker of evil, among us? So what if he has money? The temple will give us money at need."
"Let him alone, Naimejo," Naemas said tiredly to his brother and Korsis muttered at the same instant: "No it won't." Another young woman looked at the knuckles of Naemas's hand as she poured something from a small jar. "He's a miserable fuck!"
"Wow, Naimejo," Naxosos said. "And here I thought you truly loathed living on the desert."
"Get up, Nirith," Thais repeated, as the other woman's sobbing and pleading started to die away. Nirith rose to her knees and she clutched at Naxosos, her tear-streaked face piteous to behold.
"Please, lord, I never said that, I swear! I love you! I love you more than my own life!" and here she buried her face in his knees.
"Quiet, or I will strike you," Thais growled. "This will be your last warning, Nirith. Rise, and go sit with Tolalo and help him, or leave us."
Stooping and sniveling like a beaten servant, Nirith scuttled away to sit hunched at Tolalo's feet.
Naxosos said to Thais, "And here I believed we knew absolutely everything about one another, my dear."
"I sure as hell didn't know about this," Korsis snarled. "They never said a word to me about it, Naxo, you have to believe me, and I've known all three of them since I was a kid."
"Of course I believe you," Naxosos laughed.
Thais said, "Nirith is lying, she did say that and of course she remembers, but it was long before we met you, Naxo."
"Yes," Naxosos said. "I know how she feels." He grinned at Thais, trying to ignore the terrifying spectacle of tears streaming from her eyes. "Her head is full of pictures of our children, hers and mine, all the time." He looked at Joliel now. "Are you going to mend?" The sorcerer sneered at him and said nothing.
"Joliel thinks about his and your children, too," Naemas said. "All the time."
New Guy said with some irritation, "Anyone who harms the druid harms the People of God, Naemas. You will not raise your fist to the druid again, nor any weapon."
"The faggot is incapable of doing any harm to anyone," Joliel taunted, "except Naxosos. That's his target."
Naemas started to say something, but Naxosos said, "Let it go, Naemas. Joliel can say whatever he wants."
"Druid," Korsis chuckled. "What a fancy name for a pimp."
The sky had become light overhead and now the only place stars could be seen was near the western horizon. Naxosos said, "Joliel, do you really think I look like Korsis? He's far handsomer than I."
Thais put her hands to her eyes, sobbed and groaned loudly, a sound that caused everyone to freeze. "Please stop it!" she cried. She took Naxosos's hand and gazed at him earnestly.
"Everyone needs to stop crying," Naxosos said uncomfortably. "Why don't we pray now, we can always start fighting again afterwards, I suppose."
"You are the bravest, smartest, most beautiful man who ever lived and I love you and I am sorry," Thais said.
M'jo piped up now, "We're missing prayers."
Tolalo said, "It's going to take forever to get this mess cleaned up."
Naxosos said, "It's light enough to see, why don't we sing our prayers so we can get the tents broken down and see how much damage there is? Someone set up a canopy over here so Tolalo and the other cripples like myself can have a place to sit, and let's get some water and breakfast going, and everyone get to his assignment and let's sing…my Goddess, what should we sing? Will you lead?"
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