صراع النوبة في الدويم/ مشهد تاريخي

Just I had become used to the darkness, a man stole past me, creeping so that I might not hear his footsteps.
I drew my knife, crouched and sprang like a leopard upon him. He groaned and leapt backwards; a second later, a piercing scream told its own storyP someone had finished him off. The lights were brought in; Kanemi's men came into the ring and cared the bleeding body out of the ring. During that intervalm men studied the positions of their opponents.
Again we all in darkness. Two simultaneous groans filled the air. In came the lights to the ring and two bodies were carried out. The game of shanchi was warming up. Three men gone: nine left. Every time the ring was lighted. Kanemi smacked his lips with satisfaction and smoothed his waxy moustaches. Zahra, I noticed, had stopped playing her gwoje, and sitting up on her sofa, was staring wide-eyed at the ring. She looked truly lovely. The fire in her eye made me wish I could win herm and I determined to fight to the death.
One by one, we thinned out. At last only four of us were left. Of the eight who had been removed, four quite disabled and four were quite dead. Excitement mounted among the spectators as the four of us stood in the light of the lamps, panting and glaring. When the lights went out, I threw myself down on my stomach, and, with a sudden spring. Gripped someone by the legs and threw him down. He stabbed furiously at me, but I was on top of him like a cat. Two quick stabs and he was silent. The body of my first victim was removed from the ring.
Three men left. For a brief moment I saw my two adversaries. They were big men. One of them stood well over six feet in height. He was looking at me, and I knew that he would make for me the moment the lights went out again. And so it happened.
He swept past me just as I sprang aside. There was a wild yell of "Yee—whoo!" …
Regaining my balance, I leapt in his direction, striking out with a short knife drawn from the band around my elbow. I must have hit him in a vital spot, for he fell with disappointment. The man who had fallen was not the bigger man, but my second adversary. He had rushed at me in the same instant and had caught the thrust.
There were now only two of us left. My opponent indeed was an enormous man, big-jawed and long foothed.
"You're going to die now," he growled. "Your knife can do nothing to me. I have swallowed the medicine against steel."
He jabbed himself suddenly with his own knife, and the blade bent. He threw it down and drew another, from his wrist. The lights were removed, and I was alone with him. I have never been nearer death in my life. What chance had I against him? He could smash me with his first; and my knife, my sole aid, was useless.
I was feeling stiff and sore, and the prospect of being stabled made me nervous and breathless. I didn't know how to last it out. Would a miracle happen? Would Kanemi call it all off and say he had changed his mind?
I moved slowly with the quietness and caution of a chameleon, pausing to listen for him. But never once did I hear him. We met suddenly, and he stabbed furiously at me. His elbow, catching me in the head, sent a shiver down my spine. With that sudden strength born of panic, I made a wild upthrust at his body, but the knife bent like a pin, and I knew then what he had meant when he said that he had swallowed a medicine against steel. He was wearing a coat of chain- armour.
That realization summarized my chances. Henceforth cunning rather than valour would be my weapon. He gave chase as I ran. In had no clear idea in my head what to do when my breath failed me. I ran zigzag round the ring.
Then my luck turned.
All of a sudden he fell. I was quick to see what had happened. He had siepped on the knife which he himself had pierced his bare foot as easily as the sun pierces the clouds.
I saw that now was my chance. Drawing my knife, I thrust it at his bare neck. He was powerless. Given the same opportunity, I am quite certain that he would have killed me. But I merely disabled him, and therein lay my mistake: a mistake which I have regretted all my life.
I left him lying there in his own blood, while Kanemi took me to my prize.
"Zarah," he said "you have won a brave husband."
" A lucky one I corrected"