CHAPTER TEN.

The horses continued to gallop around the marketplaces with Aeon leading the team while the people scrambled away for safety. Being caught by the Magnus was going to spell trouble and that was the last thing on any Persian mind.

They continued galloping away without getting sight of the blasphemous woman and this made Magnus stop his horse and the others also came to a halt.

“Are you trying to make a mockery of me?” He asked in an angry tone while holding onto the reins of his horse tightly.

Aeon jumped down from his horse and bowed to the ground,

“The gods forbid that I should do such atrocious act against one of its own my lord, I have heard her speak such foul words against you and I ran to tell you, I can not lie to the man who think like the gods”

Magnus Bane nodded, he loved the fact that he was making mention of his omnipotence.

“Describe this woman, Aeon” Zander ordered, “how does

she look?”

“As old as she can be” Aeon answered, “my lord I won’t dare to lie to you”

“Seize every old woman you see on the streets of Persia and throw them in prison” Magnus ordered and aoen froze. This was not what he planned or wanted to do, he only wanted to save Ayita and now he was putting a lot of people in jeopardy.

“As you wish my lord” the general bowed and ordered his men to set to work.

“Hey lad” a soldier walked up to Aeon and whispered to him, “you are putting the lives of all these oldies in jeopardy because you are trying to save your little harem friend?” His voice held so much sarcasm and Aeon wanted to strangle him but he knew he was right, how did he find out by the way?

“What are you talking about?” He wanted to pretend like he didn’t know, making Magnus figure his plans out was the last thing on his list right now.

“Oh please aeon” the soldier was chewing something which was annoyingly obvious, “I saw you okay”

The big man rolled his eyes, “so what are you going to do? Report me to Magnus?”

“It depends” he answered with a shrug, “i mean you have brought a lot of drama to the palace lately”

From the look of things, he became a soldier because he didn’t want to be one of the many men who were scared of Magnus and he looked like he was from a rich family.

“If you really didn’t want to be here, why are you here?”

“You notice well, don’t you?”

“Quit stalking” the general’s voice resonated in their ears,

“get the oldies into the wagon”

The market went into an uproar as everyone struggled to get a place to hide while the old women were all dragged out.

Aeon had only one choice, either to save Ayita or the women. At this point, he was more of the villain than the hero.

“How do you plan on saving these people?” The soldier asked again and Aeon had the inkling to slash his sword against his neck.

“Will you help or keep making things more complicated for me?”

“What do I get in return?”

“Quit stalking” general Zander yelled again as the commotion continued, “do not keep the lord waiting. Get these oldies into the wagon”

Aeon gritted his teeth and grabbed him by the collar, “how about two goblets of the finest wine from the Magnus’s

winery?”

“Ohhhh, very well then” he made to move but came to a halt, “the name is Cyrus” then he ran off.

As Aeon stood watching the happenings, he saw Cyrus fall at the feet of the Magnus while holding onto his neck.

“My lord”

“Speak or forever hold your peace” the magus ordered, he was not in the mood for chit chats.

“From the tree of the fig, an insect have penetrated my skin and I feel like I am about to blow up my lord, if we can resume the search for the old hag later and take on the quest to find this insect and study it”

Magnus's eyes darkened, how dare he?

“You must have a dead wish to come at me like this Cyrus”

“Believe me my lord, if I lie then you can have me hanged and condemned to the underworld for all eternity”

“My lord” the general walked up to him, “all the oldies have been loaded into the wagon, we await your decision”

“Take some men and go to the tree of the fig, bring the creature dead or alive”

“Yes my lord” Cyrus answered and set to work while winking at Aeon who was standing a bit far. He has already helped in any way that he could.

This was the perfect opportunity for Aeon, he would not be able to live with himself if any of the women got hurt because of him.

Maybe fate was on his side because the moment Cyrus and a few of the men left, Magnus received a bird message from the priestess and the look on his face changed.

“Take care of sending these peasants to the dungeon, I will be with you shortly” Magnus Bane ordered before turning his horse around and galloping away.

Now left with a few men, Aeon was sure that his ancestors were on his side.

“Let’s move these people” Zander ordered.

“I will be back shortly my lord” Aeon spoke up and the general turned his attention to him.

“Why? You want to wander away like this is your home?”

“Magnus has given me permission to live, I see no reason why you want to stop me, general. It might annoy him to see you acting this way my lord” the hint of sarcasm in his voice did not go unnoticed by the general and he didn’t like it at all.

“Lad, I suggest you learn how to talk to me. I can get rid of you easily”

Aeon couldn’t help but sigh, it seems everyone here was more daft than he thought.

“For the umpteenth time general, you can not kill mw without the permission of the Magnus and i suggest you stop saying that, I may not take it lightly the next time”

Zander was already very furious, at first he liked the boy’s feistiness but now he was getting on his last nerves which was annoying to the core.

“Take the wagon away” Zander ordered before turning his horse away, he would give a befitting answer to the delinquent later on.

The moment the wagon went off, Aeon ran towards the tree of the fig and there, Cyrus was standing looking impatient.

“What do you have planned?” He asked him.

“Do you have a scarf?”Aeon inquired back which made the man in front of him crease his forehead into a frown before producing a scarf from underneath his tunic.

“I am not sure what you need a scarf for but all the best”

“Sure”

After talking, Aeon wrapped the scarf around his neck and head while leaving only his eyes and like that he went in the direction of the wagon.

“There is no such insect” one of the foot guards announced and Cyrus turned to him with a proud look on his face.

“Find any poisonous insect and let us away from here”