Chapter 3: The City of the Apes
Jafar al-Sharif, the storyteller kismet had cast into the role of a wizard, lay on the top of a hill in the Buryani countryside, retching. He had used his wits, and the magic cloak of invisibility King Armandor of Khmeria had given him, to kill the evil wizard Kharouf and thus defeat the army of corpses the yatu had brought against the impoverished kingdom of Buryan. But far from feeling triumphant, Jafar felt only nauseated. For the first time, he had killed another human being—an evil, damned soul, yet still a man created by Oromasd. He’d told many tales of heroes and slaughter in battle, but he found the reality far more grim than he could possibly have imagined.
When eventually he overcame his sickness, his mind began to work at its usual efficiency on
