The Return of Kai Khosrau
Ferangis has a baby, and Piran vows it will not be killed by Afrasiyab, who’s sorrowful and has repented. So even though everyone tells him the kid will just grow up to take vengeance upon him, he says he won’t interfere with the stars’ decree anymore. However, he wants the kid raised by shepherds so he never knows who his father is or what Afrasiyab did.
After a while, the shepherds started protesting to Piran that they couldn’t restrain the valiant Kai Khosrau, who was like a king. Piran is fascinated, and tells the shepherds of his birth, and takes him away. Bad news, though – Afrasiyab isn’t repentant anymore and feels weak for having kept the kid alive, so he’s got to go. Piran thinks quickly and tells the king that the kid’s an idiot, but the king wants to see him. So after warning, Kai Khosrau goes and acts like an idiot, and Afrasiyab is pleased.
In the meantime, Kai Kaous hears of his son’s death, and the whole nation mourns. Rustem is struck down for a week, then on the eighth goes to the Shah to demand revenge and the shah is shamed. He should have said something, because then Rustem went and killed Sudaveh, who he blamed for Saiawush’s death. The Shah was now scared.
Rustem goes off with an avenging army to confront Afrasiyab, who sends his “best beloved” son Sarkha to lead the Turan army, but doesn’t want to lose him to Rustem. In that case, he shouldn’t have sent him, because Rustem killed him deliberately. Let the conflict begin again, for now Afrasiyab can’t let it go and goes after Rustem and his army.
Pilsam, Piran’s younger brother, challenges Rustem to single combat. Rustem chucks him back to the Turan army and Pilsam dies. How sad. However, Piran still doesn’t want Kai Khosrau killed when Afrasiyab asks him what he should do. So Kai Khosrau is sent to Khoten and is hidden from the sight of the Iranians. Rustem takes over Afrasiyab’s throne (Afrasiyab himself flees to China) for seven years, until messengers come from Iran saying what an idiot Kai Kaous is being, and Rustem goes home. Afrasiyab comes back and is mad about the damage and destruction, so they attack Iran, and for seven year Iran’s fortunes sink.
Then Gudarz, who had helped talk Rustem into fighting for the Shah again and sent healers for his son, and was also descended from Kawah the smith, had a dream. In the dream, God told him to send Gew to seek Kai Khosrau, “for such is the will of Ormuzd.”
Gew wanders through Turan looking for Kai Khosrau for seven years, and was unhappy. Finally he finds him in a forest wearing a flower crown, and Kai Khosrau somehow knows his name and asks for tidings of the shah and others (he got it from his mother). Gew does demand that Kai Khosrau prove himself, and on Kai Khosrau’s arm is the mark of all those from the royal house. So they go home to the city of Gangdis. Ferangis is happy to see them and happy she’s about to become a royal mother, but shoos them on their way before Afrasiyab can hear. She tells them to go to a mountain and fetch a horse from the meadow-top (ed. - how does a mountain have a meadow on top?) where Saiawush’s herds are. The horse is named Behzah and will save him from Afrasiyab. So they do that, and come back, and then Ferangis puts on chainmail and they all flee.
Piran’s not so happy, because his honor is impinged by this, and fears the anger of Afrasiyab. So he sends Kelbad and three hundred knights to go get them. Gew is on guard while the others sleep and routs Kelbad and the 300 somehow, without waking the others, and then they all flee again while the 301 bad guys run away. Piran gets mad, and chases after with an army, and Gew fights alone again after Ferangis wakes him up. Piran gets captured and invokes blessings on Kai Khosrau. Ferangis pleads to spare his life, but Gew has vowed to spill Piran’s blood, and so Kai Khosrau tells him to pierce the guy’s ear so he can retain honor while not killing their prior refuge. Then they tie Piran to his horse and make him promise that only his wife Gulshehr will release him.
In the meantime, Afrasiyab is getting impatient, so he leads an army just to find out what Kai Khosrau’s up to. He hears of Gew, and is afraid, then finds Piran, and is angry and sends him away. Vows to destroy Gew and take the heads of Kai Khosrau and his mother. The three escape over the Jihun, a boundary river, into Iran before he can catch up, though. They have to deal with a greedy boatman who demands exorbitant prices since they’re in a hurry, and so Gew basically dares Kai Khosrau to cross the river because Feridoun did. Afrasiyab gives up as he reaches the other bank and interrogates the boatman as to what happens just as they get to the other side, and accepts his fate.
Kai Kaous is happy that Kai Khosrau has shown up, and declares him heir, and Tus is the only one sorrowful, and says he will only pay homage to Friburz, another son of the Shah. Strife began, until one asked the Shah to resolve the quarrel. Shah says that Kai Khosrau and Friburz will have to go to Bahman, a fortress on the border that has never been conquered because it’s infested with Deevs. Kai Khosrau let Friburz take the lead, but after a week of trying fails. Kai Khosrau perfumes a letter saying “give me this place in the name of Ormuzd” and flings it into the fortress. The Deevs vanish and Kai Khosrau gets the throne.
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