Last King of Kings

Chapter 12: Amol, city of commerce and problems

Farrukhzad made his way into the city of Amol, second stop on his journey. It was much bigger city than Rasht – commerce from India and Caspian Sea flowed through here to the heartland of Iran and then continued along the Silk road into Egypt and Anatolia. An important city, its inhabitants' livelihood was centred around commerce and trade. But Farrukhzad would never think that they wouldn't quarantine the city because of that.

When he arrived, a city, which should've been under quarantine to prevent the spread of the plague opened it's gates to greet him, merchants flowing in and out, as if no plague was ravaging the city. He at first thought that the reports might've been invalid or outdated maybe. But he came to realize the plague's presence very quickly, as they dumped another body from the walls into a pit that was dug under the walls. He just looked at the body flying down into the pit with helplessness in his eyes.

"Great." he thought. Another problem in his hands. He didn't want to bother finding out or investigating why exactly was the city not under quarantine. His job was to quarantine it and make sure the supplies and funds are handed over. And to do that, he had no choice than to go inside the city, risking contracting the plague. Or, well, he had. He sent some men to find town mayor or any other official who could take up the task of taking over the supplies and funding. So he sent them. Three, fully armed men with makeshift facemasks and a permit from wuzurg framadar himself. Their arms were, of course, for persuasive purposes only.

After about an hour, maybe two, the three men returned, dragging someone with them. The person they took looked very, very scared.

"Honourable wuzurg framadar, I don't believe I did anything that would deserve me this treatment."

Once Farrukhzad noticed the man and how his guards were dragging him, he burst out of his chair and went up to him.

"Great." he thought. "Depending on who this is, it could cost me my office. Great."

After he was just in front of that person, he helped him get up and smiled on him. The man was of average height, dark brown hair and almond eyes.

"I hope you, good sir, can forgive the treatment these three skunks gave you. I apologize in their behalf." Then he shot an angry look at the three soldiers, who were already kneeling and begging for forgiveness.

"Now, come here with me to discuss the matters at hand. This way, please." he led the person while he shouted "And someone, take these three away. I don't want to see them."

After that, they both sat in Farrukhzad's tent in a comfortable chair. Sam then brought them a jug of wine and two cups. Farrukhzad dismissed him and introduced himself.

"Farrukhzad, wuzurg framadar of the Sassanid Empire. With whom do I have the honour?"

"Yazdan, mayor of Amol, in the service of marzban Darius. And the honour is all mine. What leads someone of your standing here?"

"Great, so they dragged here a mayor of Amol? Just great." thought Farrukhzad to himself.

"Of course, my reasons. But first, let me again apologize for the rough treatment my guards gave you. I shall have them disciplined."

"Please do, honourable wuzurg framadar. Besides that, it doesn't really bother me anymore."

Farrukhzad was a bit surprised that Yazdan coped with it so quickly.

"Thank you. Well then, the reason of my presence here is quite simple – the plague. I have to ask you, good sir, why isn't Amol quarantined, according to the orders I sent? Did you not get the orders?"

Yazdan looked a bit confused when he heard the word "plague", but quickly reverted and seemed to understand what was going on.

"Honourable wuzurg framadar, the plague is long gone in this city, for a few weeks at least. I sent a message to Ctesiphon to inform our Shahanshah, may he be immortal. Did it not arrive?"

Well, it may have arrived, but the problem is that Shahanshah was currently in Istakhr, not in Ctesiphon. Not like Farrukhzad could tell that and show that his Shahanshah's weakness and helplessness.

"It most likely didn't. But nevermind that. I just saw someone dropping a corpse into the pit from the walls though. Or was it not a victim of plague?"

"Oh, it most likely was. You know, Amol is a big city and even after a few weeks since the epidemics calmed down, we still find new corpses every day. Not everyone reported having a plague, as they would be isolated and some just couldn't afford it. And so, most of them died in solitude or infected their close ones, who died with them. Thankfully, now it seems no one with the plague lives anymore."

If the plague was taken care of, Farrukhzad couldn't spread his Shahanshah's name and couldn't increase his popularity through funding the relief effort. He had to think of something.

"So, the plague is gone? So the city is not in trouble anymore?"

"Oh please, honourable wuzurg framadar. The plague left more problems than it took with her. We are low on medical supplies, as most of them were used to treat the infected. Also, graveyards, physicians and corpse burners are understaffed and poorly paid. And I have to deal with this all. We lack a lot of things, but not problems."

"My good sir, it just happened that our Shahanshah, may he be immortal, sent me to make sure each city gets sufficient supplies and funding during the epidemic. I of course, can, in the name of our Shahanshah give all of these supplies as a present from him."

Yazdan looked relieved for a while, but after seeing Farrukhzad's smile, something didn't sit right with him.

"That sound too good to be true, honourable wuzurg framadar. What is the condition of accepting such a gift?"

"Make sure to specifically highlight it comes from our Shahanshah, may he be immortal." said Farrukhzad, while handing Yazdan an extra pouch of gold. Yazdan looked at the pouch and grinned.

"That can be done. I thank you, both honourable wuzurg framadar, and specifically our Shahanshah, may he be immortal."

After that, both of the men stood up and shook hands. Then they parted ways, Yazdan having called some of his men to help moving the supplies, while tying the pouch from Farrukhzad to his belt.

"A pleasure doing business with you." said Farrukhzad quietly.

After a while, Farrukhzad went back to his camp.

"Listen lads, we'll be staying here for a few days to see whether we contracted the plague or not. Believe me, you don't want to travel with a burden like that."

And so, his journey came to a stop which was not taken into account.