In addition to Tashkent, Kenchoro also travelled through the areas of Namangan and Kokand. He visited all the mountain passes in the three regions but still could not find the troops of Kyiaz. At first he was quite disappointed. Only after a short while, a deadly fear swept over him. He worried about the loyalty of Kyiaz. “I am not sure if the fellow will betray me and inform against me,” he said to himself.
Just at that time, a shotgun was heard from the foot of the mountain.
Kenchoro Colludes with Kyiaz and Semetei Vanishes
129
Kenchoro was so excited that he rode down the mountain slope at once. It
turned out that the grand army directed by Kyiaz had just arrived as their
agreement regulated.
Kenchoro drew the magical horse borrowed from Kulchoro in front of
Kyiaz. As soon as he saw the horse which was owned by his father before,
Kyiaz put his head onto the horseback and burst into loud sobbing in sorrow.
“Oh, my buddy, my dear family member! How can you shake off the control
of the tyrant and get back to me freely? I swear to kill Semetei and Kulchoro.
I am set to avenge my father,” Kyiaz said while sniffling repeatedly.
“The coat armor that I am clad in is another rare treasure in the world.
I will also give it to you as a gift. If you want to own both of them for ever,
we have nothing to do but overthrow Semetei and Kulchoro at one stroke.
At that time, Chiachikei will be my queen and Aichurek will be your wife,”
Kenchoro said.
In addition, they made a pledge to become sworn brothers:
“Both of us will work together on our grand task of development.
If we betray each other halfway,
We will be punished by Allah!
If our joint efforts fall by the wayside,
We will be punished by the Koran!”
In order to show their loyalty to each other, they killed a mare and smeared
the blood as a sign of the oath. In this way, they flung caution to the winds and
decided to stage an armed insurrection.
Afterwards, Kenchoro returned back to the yurt of Chiachikei to tell the
slutty woman their plan of action. He advised the woman to keep perfectly
composed and not to disclose the secret.
At noon, Kenchoro pretended to come back after wrapping up his
inspection tour. As soon as he got to the yurt of Semetei, he made a boast of
his experiences on the road unceasingly. “I found the people in the border area
lived in a peaceful atmosphere. They freely move about in search of pasture
and leisurely played such games as horse racing and lamb tussling. In addition,
the farmers happily reaped the bountiful harvest of what they had sown. I
found none of the ordinary pedestrians and militia hanging about aross the
border area in a suspicious manner. Even a crow opposite the border dared not
fly into our mountainous area. In my humble opinion, no one in the world
Legend of Manas
has guts to rival us,” Kenchoro said. He used his broad smiles to cover up his sinister motives. Unfortunately, all the good-natured persons were cheated by a lot of fabrication of the evil plotter.
Having seen all the people falling into the trap, Kenchoro began to boldly implement his evil scheme. He went on to cajole Semetei into holding a memorial ceremony for Manas at the late great khan’s mausoleum. “If we don’t do that, the soul of our ancestors will not get peace and quiet. And all of us will be blamed by the whole ethnic group members,” Kenchoro emphasized.
The glib-tongued plotter pulled the wool over the eyes of Semetei completely by all his fast talking, grandiloquent language and flattery. In addition to consenting to the so-called suggestion of the plotter, Semetei even thought highly of the loyalty of him. The kind-hearted khan was inveigled into riding on horseback and heading for the mausoleum of his father at once.
However, Kanikei stepped into the courtyard of Semetei all of a sudden. She stopped her son from setting off on her trip. According to her, she had a premonition of something adverse on that day. “I had a nightmare. Your saddle was discarded in the wilderness. Your gun already rusted away. Your long spear broke with a snap. Your axe already rotted away. A group of thugs with fiendish features robbed you of your white coat armor and magical horse. What was worse, they frogmarched him out of the yard. The nightmare awoke me just now and I was in a cold sweat from fear. So I rushed to you to tell you my really bad feeling about this. My child, just listen to me. You should not go to the mausoleum right now. I promise to let you go there some other day,” said Kanikei, who was known for her ability of foretelling the future as a seer.
Almost at the same time, Aichurek also got to the yurt of Semetei in a hurry. “My sweetie, I also felt a gloomy foreboding that something was going to go wrong in these days. You ought to listen to your mother who is a widely-respected fortune teller. We will hold a memorial ceremony before the mausoleum days later if you wish to do so. But today you’d better dismount from your horseback. Don’t hesitate any more. Please! Please! Please!” the fairy maiden said.
Semetei took advice from his mother and wife and was ready to dismount from his horse. Just at that time, Kenchoro dashed towards to Semetei in a hurry. “Oh, my great Khan, How can you change your mind so swiftly? How
Kenchoro Colludes with Kyiaz and Semetei Vanishes
131
can a great khan renege on his words?” he said. Then he turned around in anger and glared at Aichurek. “You are nothing but a gossip. Don’t find fault with others for no reason whatsoever! Don’t meddle in the affairs of men! It’s none of your business!” he snapped at Aichurek. Then he raised his whip and turned the horse around as soon as possible. “Come on, My great khan. Just snap to it!” the evil plotter snapped his order out.
The great khan riding on horseback was in a dilemma. At the critical moment, Kanikei came to her son and exhorted him not to set off on his trip. “Oh, My child. The constellations in the heaven were not in good order. Such a sinister foreboding shows that you will come to a bad end if you go out today,” Kanikei said.