Kion was a warrior of the Wanugha tribe. In the 12th century, he won a crushing victory over the Almohads. But it was all too short-lived, even before the Caliphate had sent more troops. So, to save his tribe from misfortune, he exiled himself to Eg...
–"OUCH! Gently, please!" grunted Kion as the young Makini physician removed the bandages from his injured left eye and administered various herbs and ointments.
–"Thou'rt not going to get out of this in one piece by grunting like when Rafiki's hungry." she replied. "And now? Better monsieur ?"
–"Yes, thank you." He said, exhaling deeply. He opened his wounded eye and picked up a mirror.
At the sight of his new, scarred face, he thought he saw his old traitor uncle Ascar bin Ahad, known as Scar, which made him a little depressed, seeing didn't reassure him at all.
–"Be at peace! Thou'rt nothing like your crazy old uncle." Reassured the young healer at the sight of her comrade's bad appearance when he looked in the mirror.
She was thanked by Kion and Ono made a gesture of respect before leaving.
–"Join the others, Ono!" he said, taking a glass of chilled curd with some dried figs to take the edge off. "Thou'rt not going to get through the day lookin' at some poor guy, are thou!"
Ono turned his eyes to the courtyard of the medieval version of what would later become the Kalâa of the Beni Abbes. Although the tribe's golden age took place some four hundred years after this story, the Kalâa was still an important fortress, reputedly impregnable, on the Sultan's road (triq es-sultan), the required path to Bougie.
Although the fortress was of moderate importance in its day, it is nonetheless strategically located. It stands on a rocky outcrop overlooking the valley, itself on a high plateau between the sections of Ath R'zine, Ath El-Jemâa and Jeblis. It comprises the building itself, six towers protecting it, a main courtyard protected by an enclosure lined with four towers, and a smaller bailey protected by several three-tower walls. A little lower down, on the piton, was a final round wall, which served both as a path up to the Kalâa and as a front-line wall for bombarding the enemy in the event of an attack. It was here that three thousand of the almost four thousand five hundred Almohad prisoners were sequestered, the rest scattered throughout the various villages and the treasure repatriated to Ighil-Ali, a little to the north.
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(credits Youcef Rabihi)
In the main courtyard, the lawyer could hear the succession of musicians and troubadours, led by Bunga, singing Andalusian Nawba or Kabyle Achewiq, making the most cheerful soldiers dance amidst the others eating an excellent bean couscous for the last day of festivities before the separation, prepared by the women, who while preparing the meal, in a room below the one in which this scene takes place, have a great fiesta, a real hullabaloo (Urar) as we say here. The prisoners, crammed fifty deep into the cells, were given large plates of couscous and jars of milk, and they too tried to keep smiling, playing the few instruments the Kabyle had provided for them.
