Part 9 (1/2)
”At last, Azala,” I said, clasping her soft hands tenderly, and gazing into those brilliant black eyes that seemed to delight in the anxious curiosity which they aroused in my features. ”Of a verity Allah is all-powerful and all-merciful. Our destinies are written in the Book, and therefore what is there left but to submit? For many moons have I striven to seek thee, to redeem the pledge I made unto thee, and now at last is our meeting accomplished.”
Noticing that I looked askance at the presence of Ayesha and the young negress, she waved her hand to them to retire. Then, when the curtains had fallen behind them, she led me slowly to her divan, saying in serious tones, ”Come hither, O Zafar, I would have long and serious speech with thee.”
She having ensconced herself comfortably among her rich, downy cus.h.i.+ons, I seated myself beside her, and as one arm stole around her slim waist, encircled by its bejewelled girdle, I drew her tenderly towards me with the intention of imprinting on her white, sequin-covered brow a pa.s.sionate caress. Gently but firmly she disengaged herself from my embrace. At first the marvellous beauty of my divinity held me spell-bound, but fortified by her smile I found courage to pour out a rhapsody of love and admiration, to which she listened, blus.h.i.+ng deeply.
Thus, in the bliss of whispering love, we forgot the heavy sorrows oppressing us, and put aside all apprehension for the present and all care for the future.
After a recital of my adventures on being torn from her presence, I told her how wearily the hours had pa.s.sed and of my mad desire to be again at her side, to which she answered,--
”In thee, O Zafar, have I placed my trust. The sun of the favour of the One Merciful s.h.i.+neth upon us, therefore let us abandon all fear.”
”The firmament possesseth but one sun, and the Empire of Sokoto but one Princess. That life, light, joy and prosperity may attend thee is my most fervent desire.”
”May perfect peace attend thee in the rose-grove of thine happiness,”
she answered, turning towards me the most beautiful face that Allah had ever formed. ”For many moons have I waited at yonder lattice for thy coming, knowing full well that thou art ready to serve me.”
”Ay, ready to serve thee, O Pearl of Sokoto,” I said fervently. ”I love only thee, and am thy slave.”
She was toying in hesitation with her broad gold armlet that contained a talisman. Spells and charms are believed in as strongly by the ladies of Kano as those of Omdurman. The eye and knuckle-bone of a fox hung upon the neck of a boy gives him courage; its fat rubbed on a woman will convert her husband's love into indifference. The dried liver of a cat is believed to bring back the love of a desired object to the person who possesses it; the skin of its nose, if worn on the ankle, is a preventive against murder by poison; while its ashes, if taken internally, will give all the shrewd, cunning qualities of the cat. The one Azala wore was the _kus kaftar_--a portion of the dried skin of a female leopard one moon old, which always bears the greatest price in the seraglios, because, if worn on the arm, it is believed to conciliate the affections of all to its wearer; and as she fingered it she uttered some kind of incantation that I failed to understand.
Her head had fallen back upon the great gold-ta.s.selled pillow, and with her white arm thrown out above she looked up smiling into my face, uttering words of courage, declaring that I was the only man she had ever asked to perform a service.
”But,” she added, suddenly raising herself into a sitting position and gazing straight into my eyes, ”how little--how very little we are thinking of the deadly peril which threateneth us! Both of us are confident in each other's love; but, alas! no safety can there be until the Great Secret be solved.”
”What secret?” I asked, endeavouring to read her story in her brilliant eyes.
”The Secret of the Asps,” she answered, in a calm, low tone. ”The secret of the strange, mysterious mark that is upon my breast and thine.
When it is solved, then only may peace be ours.”
”Tell me all thou knowest regarding the curious imprint,” I said eagerly, lifting her bejewelled hand and pressing it tenderly. ”Now that I am thy best beloved, ready to serve thee blindly and implicitly, surely I may know the secret of things concerning both of us,” I argued.
But with a sigh she answered, ”No. Some knowledge hath been conveyed to me upon condition that I should preserve its secret until such time as the mystery shall be elucidated. Suffice it to thee to know that thou art the person to whom the truth may be revealed if thou hast forbearance and courage.”
”Will any act of mine place about thee the walls of security and the stillness of peace?” I inquired, with eagerness.
”Already have I told thee that, if thou wilt, thou canst save me.”
”From what destiny?”
”From one unknown, yet horrible--undecided, yet terrible,” she answered, hoa.r.s.ely.
”Then I am thine to command, O Azala,” I answered. ”In Zafar thou hast a servant who will serve thee with faith and fearlessness, unto even the uttermost ends of the earth.”
”When the dawn cometh we shall be compelled to part, for full well thou knowest what fate awaiteth thee if thou wert discovered by Khazneh or his brutal myrmidons,” she said, slowly. ”But ere we bid each other farewell we have much to arrange, for upon the success of our plans dependeth whether our hands again clasp in welcome, or our lips meet in salutation. In receiving thee here I have run many risks in common with thee. If our enemies conveyed word unto the Sultan, a.s.suredly would the vials of his wrath be poured out upon me, and he would execute his threat of giving me in marriage to some common soldier of the palace-guard.”
”Has his Majesty given utterance to such a threat?”
”Yea. Because I fell into the displeasure of Khadidja, the scheming slave who now ruleth the harem as his chief wife, I became banished from the Courts of Enchantment. Indeed, only by the intercession of mine own mother, who hath long ago been deposed from her position of Sultana, and is now a mere slave, compelled to wash the feet of many who once served her, was I spared the indignity of being cast out from the palace and given as drudge to one of the hors.e.m.e.n who guard the Kofa-n-Kura.
Indeed, the hand of misfortune hath fallen heavily upon me,” and she drew a long sigh, as in deep thought her pointed chin rested in her dainty palm.