Hidden Depths

Chapter 21 - Into the Gowd

It had been years since Rich had donned a dishdasha.  The traditional white robes worn in the Middle East were comfortable, but much better suited to striding around the hot, dry climate they were invented for than crawling through a cold tunnel, nose to bum, behind the Brethren brother in front of you.

They only needed to navigate a short distance on all fours, but the low tunnel seemed to hold the twelve of them up for an age, as the new boys' knees caught on the baggy robes that haltingly tightened around their necks.  One too many times, Rich's head invaded the privacy of the boy in front of him as they concertina'd and caterpillar'd their way into the room known as the Zoor Khaneh.

The Zoor Khaneh was wider than most of the Brethren's underground chambers Rich had seen so far, and a thick rope marked out a large circular area on the padded floor.

'We all must enter the Zoor Khaneh humbly,' said Mr Abdullah, 'but how to avoid embarrassing collisions is a skill worth developing swiftly.' 

Rich and the Shells exchanged uncomfortable glances as their teacher continued.  

'We've been practising Varzesh-e Pahlavani for centuries, and still rely on it for almost half of our training needs, so it's only appropriate that our first combat lesson of the year, and the first ever for our new brothers, should be a traditional Pahlavani sense and sweat session.' 

The upper sixth boys groaned theatrically as they moved to stand outside the rope that formed the ring.  Rich followed their lead, and in moments they were all stood in a circle facing each other.

'Respect your Gowd!'  commanded Mr Abdullah in a tone that was markedly different to what Rich had come to expect. 

The experienced boys all dropped to their knees and kissed the rope.  Rich realised that he wasn't going to be given any special direction and did his best to copy the others' actions with minimal delay.

They all remained on their knees and, noticing that he was the only one with his eyes open, Rich closed them hoping for an aural clue to what he was supposed to do next.  The sound of a slowly-beating drum started to reverberate around the room.  

'Picture yourself from above,' Mr Abdullah said between the beats. 

'You are kneeling at the centre of a clock face, with dotted lines stretching out between you and the hours.'

Mr Abdullah walked through a gap in the ring and stepped over the rope. He continued to slowly beat the drum as he went. 

'Now listen well and position me on your clock face, then whisper which of your sectors I'm in.' 

The boys all started saying numbers between one and twelve, quietly calling out a new number each time Mr Abdullah moved into a new sector.  It was easy at first as he walked steadily around the room, listening to make sure the boys were getting it right.  

After a short while, Rich heard that the beats were no longer indicating the teacher's steady walk around the room, but were thumping out as if he was able to jump like a ninja grasshopper from 2 to 8 then 10 to 4.  Impressed and confused in equal measure, Rich was desperate to open his eyes and see how his teacher was doing it, but he got the feeling this wouldn't go down well and allowed himself no more than an intrigued grin.

The drumming tempo sped up, with the sound jumping around the room impossibly fast until Rich and the others could hardly call out the numbers quick enough to keep up.  Just as the drumming reached a crescendo it stopped and there was a brief moment of silence before Mr Abdullah quietly said, 'tense to protect', beat his drum twice, then struck Aarzam hard in the stomach.