Last King of Kings

Chapter 45: The coincidence to change one's fate

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Jalinus and his men went into the garden, guided by Yazdegerd's directions, and eventually found the place where Yazdegerd met the assassin. It only took a while of searching in the surrounding bushes to reveal the assassins hideout and several other things. Firstly, he acted alone, most likely on someone's orders. The hideout was quite humble, hidden from sight in deep in the bushes. The only thing that made Jalinus surprised was the fact that the assassin was hiding here, deep in the gardens for a while. Over a month, at least. In the hideout he had supplies for another month at least. Did that mean that he wasn't yet ready to strike? Or was that just a precaution? No, that would be an overkill to bring supplies for another month just as a precaution. Why then? Did he really mean to stay here for another long month, perhaps building some kind of spy network? Or perhaps he wanted to continue bribing and gathering information himself? Whatever, he was doomed the moment Yazdegerd saw him, so he really had no other option than to run for him and try to finish what he started. But why was he outside of his hideout when Yazdegerd went into the gardens? Perhaps he hadn't anticipated anyone venturing this deep into the gardens at that exact time. It was true that Yazdegerd didn't go there on his regular time. Maybe that was it. The assassin knew that some boy is regularly going into the centre of the gardens, so he was cautious about hiding himself from him. But when that same boy appeared, not on the regular time and with Shahanshah's formal crown, it was clear to him. He had to be angry at himself for not killing the boy before. Had he known he was Shahanshah, he would've ended it much earlier. But thanks to Yazdegerd's laziness of not wanting to wear his crown, he didn't and Yazdegerd survived. What a strange coincidence.

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When Khalid arrived back to Hira, he found it exactly as he left it. Desolate, empty city populated only with soldiers. Well, perhaps it changed a bit. Some civilians, mainly the poor, were brought into the city. With the promise of a safe home and stable work, it wasn't hard to persuade them. They settled right in and apparently were ordered to work the fields, in an attempt to create a self-sustainable society here. Also, the local fire-temple was made into a mosque to worship Allah, with priest being brought here to hold daily prayers. So it really has changed. Once empty and desolate city was starting to look again like the city it was before. Well, at least Khalid thought so. He never saw Hira before the city was depopulated, he only heard the rumours. "The Pearl in the desert," "The gate to Mesopotamia," Hira was known by many names, and Khalid believed all of them. But alas, he had no way of actually confirming whether those names were true or not.

He entered Hira with the army returning from Syria. Although the battle never actually occurred, soldiers still were exhausted and demoralized, both from the march through the scorching desert and both from the death of their Caliph, that demoralized both Khalid's army and the garrison at Hira. Umar's orders were quite clear. To destroy the Persians, he said. Khalid first needed to give his soldiers their well-earnt rest, to let them regain morale again, and mainly to reinforce and resupply. He looked around the now reviving city. There weren't many people here, but the progress over the half a year or so is evident. Around a thousand civilians already lived here, which, although very small number compared to the original population, was still something. But there was one thing Khalid feared. It was only hypothetical. He himself didn't believe it. Well, rather he didn't want to believe it. What if Persians were to, somehow, reoccupy the city? What would happen to the civilians already living here? And the garrison? What would happen? Khalid wasn't blinded with hate for Persians like Umar, for example, was. Khalid, in this sense, shared more views with young Usama, who believed that there is more to people than their religion. He only supported Umar over Usama because he believed Umar to be more competent in ruling a country. But even though he didn't hate Persians and didn't believe them to be some brutes that would go and massacre the whole city, he just couldn't dispose of this option as something that couldn't happen. It very much could happen. But how? How could it ever come to Persians actually somehow reaching and seizing the city? Of course, it could only happen were Khalid defeated on the field of battle. Of course, he didn't plan to be defeated anywhere soon. But again, the responsibility fell on him. For some reason, he suddenly felt his shoulders becoming much heavier.

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"What do you mean? If you can't find him, then search more! Search the whole damn Arabia if necessary, just find him!"

Umar was furious. After he took over as Caliph, not many things worked for him. Although he had majority support from the most powerful people, there still was large minority supporting Usama, who just disappeared one day. Umar was immediately suspected by Usama's support group, but Umar himself knew very well that the plan to murder Usama wasn't successful, because Usama left on his own. Umar didn't believe Usama to be so stupid and hot-headed to just go off into a desert without any purpose, so he was either hiding in some bigger settlement or was travelling along the main road. But it was already more than a month from his disappearance and Umar had to answer the suspicions soon. He couldn't just tell them he planned to murder him, but never did, and were he to just deny any suspicions, it would be on them if they believed Umar or not. The best he could do for now was to announce nation-wide search for Usama. That was his best bet. What would happen then was anyone's guess. But Umar hoped that the conflict with Persians he was preparing for would redirect their attention from him. But if he wanted to actually stay in power, the war had to be a successful one. But confidence was something Umar wasn't lacking. Not only confidence in Khalid and his soldiers, but also confidence in being the chosen one by his god. But there is a fair difference in being confident and overconfident.