Shadow of a Hero

LEGEND

The Kas Kalaz

THE PASHA OF Potok pursued hotly after Restaur Vax and Lash the Golden, seeking vengeance for the death of his son.

‘Let us cross the mountains,’ said Lash. ‘The Pasha of Falje is at odds with the Pasha of Potok. He will not trouble us.’

‘To cross the mountains our best road runs through Kalaz, and I would welcome the chance to speak with the Kas Kalaz, for we need his aid,’ said Restaur Vax. ‘But is there not a feud between you and Kalaz?’

‘Indeed there is such a feud,’ said Lash, ‘and many lives have been taken. My own grandfather killed the uncle of the present Kas Kalaz, in fair fight, close by the Iron Gates, and threw him into the river.’

‘So you cannot go by Kalaz,’ said Restaur Vax.

‘I will go by goat-paths and the paths of the hunter, and over the Neck of Ram,’ said Lash. ‘And you will go through Kalaz and speak with the Kas, and we will meet in three days’ time at the Old Stones of Falje.’¹

So they agreed, but what Lash had not said was that beneath the Neck of Ram lived a shepherd who had a fair daughter. Then Restaur Vax rode over the Eastern Pass and came to Kalaz, where he made himself known to the Kas, and spoke very strongly with him, saying that the time was ripe to drive the Turk from Varina. The Kas was an old man, and wasted with illness so that he could not rise from his chair, but he looked fiercely at Restaur Vax and said, ‘The word is that you have a bandit as your companion, a man called Lash.’

‘It is so,’ said Restaur Vax.

‘There is blood yet to be paid between us,’ said the Kas. ‘This man’s grandfather trapped my uncle by a trick at the Iron Gates, and slew him and threw his body in the river. I would see the debt paid before I die.’

‘Would you not sooner see the Turk driven from the land?’ said Restaur Vax.

‘Sooner than all the earth,’ said the Kas Kalaz.

‘While brother slays brother and neighbour lies in wait for neighbour it cannot be done,’ said Restaur Vax. ‘The time is ripe, but we must plan with a single mind, endure with a single heart and smite with a single arm. Let the debt be forgotten.’

‘Blood can never be forgotten,’ said the Kas Kalaz. ‘But it can be frozen for a season. Therefore by the bones of St Joseph I swear that the Kas Kalaz will seek no vengeance from Lash or the clan of Lash until the Turk is driven from the land.’

Then he said to his eldest son who stood at his side, ‘You hear this? When you yourself are the Kas Kalaz and Restaur Vax sends word to you to come, you will leave both your harvest and your hunting, you and all the men of Kalaz, and go with him to fight the Turks, and all feuds will be frozen.’

‘By the bones of St Joseph I will do it,’ said the son of the Kas Kalaz.

Well pleased, Restaur Vax rode on his way and camped by the Old Stones of Falje. For a day and a night and another morning he waited for Lash the Golden, and when the sun was high in the sky he saw a woman come running down the mountain. She fell at his feet half-dead from weariness, but he lifted her up and she said, ‘Ride swiftly to the shepherd’s house below the Neck of Ram, for the son of the Kas Kalaz is there with his men, and he has seized Lash the Golden and put a rope about his neck and vowed that he will hang him at sunset.’

‘How came the son of the Kas Kalaz there?’ said Restaur Vax. ‘I feasted with him in Kalaz town but two nights past.’

‘Lash visited me,’ said the woman, ‘but my father learnt of his coming and went secretly over the mountains to the son of the Kas Kalaz and told him where his enemy lay. They came at dawn, while Lash still slept, but I was milking the goats and hid, and heard what was said. Then I ran to find you, for Lash had told me where he was to meet you. Now go, and go swiftly.’

‘You must come with me, for I do not know the path,’ said Restaur Vax.

‘I am over-weary,’ said the woman. ‘Who among men could have run as I have run this morning?’

Then Restaur Vax put her on his horse and they went by goat-paths and the paths of the hunter over the mountain. Where the way was steep he led the horse by the bridle, and where it was level he ran with his hand in the stirrup. Eleven kolons² he ran between her coming and the sunset, and the sun was low in the sky when they crossed the Neck of Ram and came down to the shepherd’s house. There they found Lash the Golden with the rope about his neck, and the son of the Kas Kalaz making ready to hang him.

‘Do not do this,’ said Restaur Vax. ‘You have sworn by the bones of St Joseph that the feud is frozen.’

‘Not so,’ said the son of the Kas Kalaz. ‘My oath is still free. It was the Kas Kalaz who swore, and I in my turn swore for the time when my father is dead and I am the Kas Kalaz.’

Restaur Vax spoke strongly with him, trying to persuade him, but he would not hear, for the feud was old and very bitter, with many deaths. Then, as the rim of the sun touched the Neck of Ram, a man came running up the mountain and fell at the feet of the son of the Kas Kalaz and wept, and then stood and embraced him and called him by his father’s name. By this he knew that his father had died, and he was now the Kas Kalaz, and the oath he had sworn was binding.

So he gave orders, and the rope was taken from the neck of Lash the Golden and the bonds that bound him were loosed, and the Kas Kalaz embraced him and said, ‘The blood between us is frozen, and we are brothers, until we have driven the Turk from Varina.’

But Restaur Vax took Lash aside and said, ‘Speak with honour of this woman all your days, my friend. I have travelled by the path on which she ran to save you, and by St Joseph I myself could not have done it.’

Then Lash was ashamed.

¹ The Old Stones of Falje. A bronze age trilith, unique in the Balkans in its design.

² The kolon is not a precise measure. Any considerable distance is traditionally described as seven, eleven or seventeen kolons.