Part 16 (1/2)
”O my mistress, what do you contemplate?” Shawahi inquired with a quaver. She had excellent reason to distrust the motives of the Queen.
Nur al-Huda appraised the old woman's att.i.tude at a glance. One of the disconcerting things about her was the fact that she could read Shawahi more readily than the old woman could return the favor. ”Do not fear for his safety, mother. I mean only to verify that my sister is his wife and the children his, for young boys should not be isolated from their sire. I swear by all manner of oaths that if this is the case, I will not hinder him from taking them back to his own country. I will send him home with wealth and troops befitting royalty-but I must be certain, first.”
Rea.s.sured, Shawahi listened to the Queen's instructions. She was to arm herself and travel to Manar al-Sana's residence with a troop of hors.e.m.e.n and bring back the two boys. She was to keep the mission secret, and not tell anyone why the lads were being taken until the connection had been verified, otherwise the test would not be valid.
Shawahi prepared herself at the palace, gathered her escort, and made the three-day journey to the southwest coast where the six other sisters dwelt. Each had her little island off the main Isle, Sana's being the most distant. The crossing was accomplished, the official request presented.
”Why of course I owe my sister a visit,” Sana agreed.
”Only let me bid farewell to my father the King, and I will return with you now.”
This was not precisely what Shawahi had intended. The trial of the boys' father-relations.h.i.+p had to be made with- out the mother present, so that no equivocation was possi- ble. ”My lady, your sister bids me also bring your two boys to her, for she has never seen them.”
Sana's pleasant bearing changed. ”O my mother, I cannot take them on such a journey. My vitals tremble and my heart flutters when I think of the dangers to which they might be exposed. I fear for their health even when the zephyr breathes upon them in the night.”
Shawahi had been afraid of this. ”What words are these, O my daughter? Surely you don't believe your sister means harm to these innocents? She is the Queen, and you dare not cross her in this matter or she will be very angry with you. It is hardly unnatural for her to want to see her nephews.”
Sana bowed her head. She had never had the firmness of her sisters. ”I don't know what to do. I love them so much, since they are all I have to remember their father by. How can I expose them to-” She broke off, horrified.
Shawahi caught the slip. ”You did know their father, then. The boys are not foundlings.”
Sana knelt and clutched the old woman's skirt. ”O my mother, please, please never tell anyone that! It would mean my life.”
There was more Shawahi wanted to know, but she had promised the Queen not to divulge her true purpose, and further questions would give it away. She was sure now in her own mind that Sana was Hasan's wife, and that she still loved him. But why hadn't the silly girl rejoined him in Baghdad? Or at least left word at Serendip?
”I will say nothing, my daughter,” Shawahi promised, knowing that this would change nothing. How she longed to speak Hasan's name and bring the couple together again! But the given word was absolute, in Wak, and the reuniting would happen soon in any event. Once the Queen was a.s.sured of the situation, all would be well.
It gave her a warm feeling, for Shawahi had come to love Hasan as a son, and Sana, despite her softness, had been her favorite foster-daughter. The two were alike in physical beauty and warmth of personality and especially in that certain quality of naivete that was so rare in the world today.
Meanwhile there was the mission. ”O my daughter, you know my affection for you and those dear to you, for indeed I raised you myself after your gracious mother died. Give your sons to my charge, so that I may take them to the Queen, and I will care for them with the same heart I cared for you. Never fear for their safety; I will dress them in two little coats of mail and protect them with my life until you join them again. You can follow me at your leisure, and all will be well.”
Sana remained uncertain, but finally agreed. ”Take them,” she said with tears in her eyes, ”and I will follow when I a.s.semble my party in a day or so, even as you say. I know they are safe in your care.”
Shawahi hoped this faith was justified. The Queen had promised, but the Queen was a law of her own.
She went next to see the King, for it would have been an act of disrespect to leave without paying homage to the nominal ruler of all the empire. She had served him loyally for all her adult life and held him in the highest esteem. He was a man who deserved more than a family of seven daughters and no son.
After the formalities, the King dismissed his retainers and a.s.sociates and gave Shawahi private audience. ”O faithful one,” he said, ”it gladdens my heart to see you again, for my mind is oppressed by a mysterious dream which I know not how to interpret.”
Shawahi's days of dream interpretation were long be- hind her, but she was happy to help her King. ”How so, O my liege and master of empires?” She had not realized how old and tired the King had become in the past few years. The spark of majesty remained, but the n.o.ble strength that had driven an empire to greatness was gone with the color of his hair. Strong-willed Nur al-Huda would proba- bly continue to rule, in the absence of male power. Unfor- tunately, she had neither the wisdom nor control of her sire; the empire was likely to suffer.
”In my dream I entered a hidden h.o.a.rd, wherein was great store of monies, of jewels, of jacinths and of other riches. But it was as if naught could please me of all this treasure save seven bezels, which were the finest jewels there. I chose out one of the seven, and it was the smallest and most l.u.s.trous of them all, and its color pleased me. So I took it in my hand and fared forth from that treasury. When I came outside the door I opened my hand, rejoicing and turning over the jewel. Behold-there swooped down on me out of the welkin a strange bird from a far land, a creature not of our country, and s.n.a.t.c.hed it from my hand and carried it away. Whereupon sorrow and concern and sore vexation overcame me, and I felt such exceeding chagrin that I awoke mourning and lamenting the loss of the jewel.”
Shawahi stood silent, not daring to comment. She knew what the King did not: that a traveler had entered Wak from a distant land and was about to claim the youngest and prettiest and most beloved of the King's seven jewels. She knew-but was bound to silence by her promise to the Queen.
”What interpretation do you place upon this vision?” the King inquired. ”Indeed, it sore oppresses me and hinders my rest.”
Now the burden was upon Shawahi. She could not speak falsely to her King-but neither could she break her oath.
He looked at her sharply. ”Surely you have something to say, O loyal mistress of my armies? Well I remember when in all the realm there was not your peer at magic and divination. ...”
”That was many years ago, my master. Now I am old and confused, and my loyalties pull me first one way and then the other until I don't know what to do. All I can say about your dream is that perhaps the bird took away the jewel from you because there was another who needed it more, having no treasure while you had seven. Perhaps that other will care for it and cherish it long after you-”
She had slipped as badly as had Sana, but the King only smiled. ”You are right, old companion-at-arms. I shall have no need of jewels hereafter. I will not be born a king again. ...”
Shawahi's mind was in turmoil long after that interview. The King knew he was dying. She suspected she would not see the great old monarch again, and did not want to outlive him.
She took the two boys, a fine three year old lad who seemed to resemble Hasan and his brother a year younger who favored Sana, and made the return trip swiftly be- tween the mountains and the sh.o.r.e, using the special trails and pathways no one else knew. She brought the boys immediately to Queen Nur al-Huda, their aunt.
The Queen rejoiced at the sight of them. She embraced them both and pressed them to her breast. They accepted this without complaint, for she was very like their mother when she chose to be. Then she seated one upon her right thigh and the other upon her left and paid them much attention, while Shawahi marveled at this unaccustomed display of affection and thought how fine a woman the Queen might be if only she had a husband to mitigate her pa.s.sions.
”Fetch me Hasan forthwith,” Nur al-Huda said. So she knew him by name now! Things had certainly changed . . . possibly too much, she thought with a sudden qualm. ”I have granted him my safeguard and spared him from execution. He has sought asylum in my domain and taken up abode in my city, after pa.s.sing through all manner of mortal risks and enduring hards.h.i.+ps, each more terrible than the other. ...” She glanced meaningfully at Shawahi. ”Yet he is not safe from the severance of his breath.”
So the Queen still meant to kill Hasan if he was not the father of the two children. ”When I bring him, will you reunite him with his sons? Or, if they are not his, will you pardon him and let him go in peace?”
The royal temper flared, frightening the children. ”Fie upon you, O ill-omened old creature! How long will you try to distort my judgment in the matter of this stranger who has dared intrude himself upon us and pry into our affairs? Do you think he can come into our country unin- vited and poke into our business and betray our honor, and then return safely to his own country to expose our con- cerns to his people and bruit them about among all the kings of the earth and send forth the report with vile merchants and others of ill repute journeying in all direc- tions, saying, 'A mortal man has entered the Isles of Wak and traversed the Land of the Jinn and the Isles of the Birds and the Place of the Wild Beasts and the Country of Warlocks and Enchanters-and returned in safety?' This shall never be, no never; and I swear by Him who built the Heavens and spread and smoothed the earth and who created and counted all creatures that if these innocent boys are not his sons, I will a.s.suredly slay him and strike off his head with my own hand! Now get out of here and fetch me Hasan!”
And as the old woman stumbled and fell and dragged herself away and the two boys cried in terror and the very curtains of the palace seemed to smoke with the force of her explosion, the Queen turned and added quietly to her mamelukes: ”Go with this crone and fetch the fair youth who is in her house.”
Hasan was too distraught this time to pay any attention to the st.u.r.dy architecture of the palace as he entered it. In moments he would either achieve his dream, or suffer death. How he hoped the children were his!
The Queen was making merry with the two lads, who had apparently adjusted already to her mercurial moods. As Hasan approached she turned the boys to face him.
”Nasir! Mansur!” he exclaimed, recognizing them.
The older boy's eyes widened. Time had pa.s.sed, and much had changed . . . but in a moment he scrambled down from the Queen's lap and ran to his father. Seeing this, the younger one followed. Hasan embraced both of them.
”Merciful Buddha!” Shawahi whispered, tears of sym- pathy and relief streaming down her ancient face. The servants and guards of the palace stood around with senti- mental expressions.
But Nur al-Huda, strangely, was not pleased. ”These, then, are indeed your children, and their mother is your wife?”
”Yes, O my lady!” Hasan agreed happily, unaware of the undercurrent.
”And you are a merchant of Arabia without royal blood?”
Hasan began to get the drift. ”I am, O Queen.”
The Queen's eye dilated and light froth appeared at the corners of her mouth. ”You unspeakable pig!” she screamed in his face, while he stood amazed that such beauty could become so vile so rapidly. ”Lecherous despoiler of roy- alty! Did you dare to lay your unclean hands upon a princess of Wak?” She struck him in the face, a hard blow with clenched fist in the manner of a man, and kicked him in the chest when he tried to escape by doubling over. It occurred to him that his motion had averted the blow intended . . . ”Fly for your life! If I had not sworn to do you no evil were your story true, I would slay you this moment!”
Shawahi tried to say something, but the Queen turned on her. ”Quiet, O ill begotten harlot! But for the fact I am loath to break my oath, I would put you and him both to death in the foulest fas.h.i.+on.” The old woman retreated and fell on the floor.
The Queen returned her attention to Hasan. ”Depart, monster, and return to your own country before I lose my temper! I swear by my fortune and all the power of Wak which is mine that if I ever see you again I will smite off your head and kill anyone with you.”
Then she cried to her guards. ”Throw this carrion out!”
Once again the men took hold of Hasan and dragged him on his face across the floor and thrust him out of the palace. He stumbled away, bruised and faint, his mind filled with the picture of the Queen's terrible wrath and Shawahi's horror as she realized they had been betrayed.