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Conqueror Of Zarzar
"Within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king, Keeps Death his Court," (Shakespeare)
By : Dewan Sharar.
He was a tall, splendid young man, every inch a warrior, with a handsome merciless face. His father had conquered four tiny adjoining kingdoms, and welded them together into one realm, naming it Zarzar— which translated means "Gold, gold". No less than four crowns of purest gold, richly jewelled, adorned Shah Alam Khans treasury. "Let us hope he will be able to keep them. With them goes our safety," said the people of Zarzar.
Shah Alam Khan said little to begin with. When the magnificent ceremonies of his accession and coronation and first Durbar were over, he walked about with his advisers, ministers, warriors, and wise old counsellors of his father's day in the Trophy House of his palace. This was a huge vaulted room where lay all the spoils of all the wars wherein Zarzar's four kingdoms had ever been engaged. Stacked heaps of swords and scimitars, with Damascus blades and gloriously jewelled hilts and scabbards; the shields of fallen warriors; the helmets and armour, the howdahs and saddles and trappings of sacked palaces. The four crowns of the four kingdoms, set out in great state. At one end of the vast hall a large table of carved marble held a map of Zarzar and the surrounding country, modelled in clay, with each of the four kingdoms marked by a miniature jewelled sword thrust in point downwards.
Shah Alam Khan and his advisers bent over it.
"You see, do you not, Majesty?" quavered the oldest minister. "Here is Zarzar; and here — dominating it, menacing it always — in a position of incomparable superiority — is Yaghistan.
"Did they choose to attack us, with their vast well-trained hordes,
we would be lost. Therefore it is well, Majesty, as your illustrious father thought it well too, to remain always very friendly with Yaghistan."
Shah Alam Khan frowned a little. He did not look the kind of man to keep obsequiously friendly with a stronger power out of prudence, whatever his father might have done. But the Gidest minister was very old indeed, and for courtesy's sake had to be bcrne with.
One of Shah Alam Khan's generals said suddenly, "My spies have
lately brought me a strange story, Majesty. It comes from Yaghistan."
"Concerning whom, General Salaar?" asked Shah Alam Khan.
"Majesty," said General Salaar, ''it ccncerns yourself."
The face of Shah Alam Khan lit with immediate interest.
"I desire to hear this tale," he
said.
"I see no reason to doubt its truth, Majesty," said General Salaar. "It is. thai the Court Astrologer of Yaghistan lies in prison, in imminent danger of his life, because he dared to predict that you, Majesty, would shortly attack Yaghistan, matching your small army against their might; and would conquer."
For the space of a full minute there was silence in the great Trophy House. Then. "He predicted that, did he?" said Shah Alam Khan. "Gentlemen, I am minded to prove him right!"
He snatched the jewelled dagger from his belt and raising it high in the air, he plunged it downwards into the kingdom of Yaghistan.
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