Ma'in, the Imperial city-state along the coast of the Arabian Sea
Lo'gan looked across the busy tent to the people pouring in and out of its entrance. It was a huge tarp, lit with oil lamps that held dozens of people all trying to make money from games of chance. Scanning the crowd of faces with a calculating eye, Lo'gan kept a lookout for trouble. Harabi was one of the big winners that night. Surrounded by women waiting for him to grow tired and leave with them, he laughed and joked his way for countless hours. Lo'gan was not sure how he did it, but he was certain Harabi was cheating. He did lose on occasion, but it wasn't enough to dent his winnings and Lo'gan watched the crowd for signs that it was time to move on. In a way, he had to admit that Harabi was in his element. He was charming and knew how to work a crowd and looking over at Lo'gan every few minutes, very aware of his surroundings.
It was in one of those silent communications that Lo'gan sensed trouble. There was a crowd of men in one side of the tent that were not pleased at Harabi's luck. Nodding to him almost imperceptibly, Lo'gan started walking towards the entrance, all the time watching the men from across the room. Harabi moved to lose three games in a row and disentangle himself from the women, claiming his luck had changed and had had enough for one night. Taking advantage of the commotion of someone else winning, he slipped outside easily and met Lo'gan in the alleyway. It was dark, but Lo'gan could see the white in Harabi's smile.
"Not bad, huh, my Jabir brother?"
The Dawasir tossed him a purse, which Lo'gan emptied into his own discretely. Over the night, they had built a considerable amount that he carried for safety.
"How many times must I tell you, that you are not my brother?"
Harabi looked around and emptied some more currency from his sleeve. Lo'gan took those too and was tempted to yank them back, just to see what it was that he had in the wide armholes.
"That is what you say, but I know you feel differently."
Lo'gan sighed and looked up to see the moon almost three quarters through its nightly course. Glancing back to see if they were being followed, he added in a low tone.
"We have enough. We should leave before your luck runs out. The guards sweep this area on occasion."
Harabi snorted and started walking towards the next noisy tent, just up the street.
"Bah! The night is still young! We have time, but if you wish, we can retire to this place I know well."
Lo'gan smirked, knowing exactly where the Dawasir wanted to go.
"I should check on Nayif. There are plenty of horse thieves in this city."
Harabi started laughing.
"A horse? You're worried about your horse? Gods! You are worse than I thought. Com'on you can meet some girls, leave that horse alone."
Lo'gan thought that over. All night he had searched the crowds for deep green eyes, but he had lost hope hours ago. Everyone had the same dark black ones that he did and it was a futile search. Harabi saw his face change and instantly knew what Lo'gan was contemplating.
"Hey, the girl I'm going to go see would know."
Lo'gan snapped out of his daydreaming and regarded Harabi in frustration.
"Know what?"
"Ha! You know exactly what, com'on, we are wasting time, dear brother!"
Lo'gan was about to protest, but Harabi had already started walking off and looking around to see a few couples in the alleys surrounding the street squares, Lo'gan figured he should at least follow the Dawasir to keep him out of trouble. With a defeated grumble, he stomped to where Harabi was going, upset that he hadn't found what he was looking for and disappointed that in the crowded city he would not be contemplating the stars out on the dunes that night.
They arrived at the house just a short walk later. On their way, they had seen guards harassing some people, but slipping around to another street to avoid them reached the house safely enough. Strangely enough, Harabi did not knock on the door, instead, went around to climb down stone steps leading to an underground floor. Lo'gan followed in silence, not entirely sure of what he was doing but game for it anyway. When they reached a second door, Harabi knocked four times. Lo'gan waited with a hand on his Khanjar, until the door swung open and a girl stepped out amid the sounds of giggling and music.
She was dressed in a shocking yellow dress parted up to her waist on both legs. Lo'gan stared at the slits while she stared at Harabi who was looking at her with his arms out expectantly. In a move that made the walls reverberate, she muttered `bastard' and slapped Harabi hard across the face before turning on her heel and storming back in. A stunned Harabi looked at an equally stunned Lo'gan before pounding on the door.
"Aww, Miznih, please, I can explain, I can explain!"
He pounded on the door and wailed, until Lo'gan burst into laughter. The girl just did in three seconds, what he had wanted to do for over three weeks.
"Your friend, huh? Are all your friends this happy to see you?"
Harabi turned to tell him to shut him up, but the door suddenly swung open again. The girl in yellow smiled provocatively at Lo'gan and pulled him in by the hand.
"You can come in though. Welcome to Miznih's, what's your name?"
Lo'gan blinked at her obvious attempt to infuriate the Dawasir and let himself get pulled into the brightly decorated house.
"Lo'gan."
Harabi balked and jumped to separate them.
"Hey!! I said I was sorry!"
The girl shook off his hand on her arm and looked at Lo'gan pointedly as she walked him in. Lo'gan could see about a dozen couples kissing and cuddling along the mountains of pillows lining the place. She kicked the wooden door behind her, but Harabi caught it and followed them.
"Lo'gan, can you please tell that animal that he is not invited in, only you are."
Lo'gan turned to Harabi with a grin, clearly enjoying the Dawsir's reception.
"You heard her, scram."
Harabi looked about to cry and stuttered.
"Well, ah, maybe I'm not here to see you, Miznih. Maybe I came just to……see her."
Harabi walked over to put an arm around another girl and Lo'gan sighed. He had dealt with females enough to know that was a big mistake. True enough, the girl that was clinging to his arm, jumped up in reaction.
"What the hell do you think you're doing??"
Harabi grinned, very pleased with himself and apparently having a death wish.
"Like I said I came to see he……"
The soft music of the oud stopped and everyone turned to look as the girl's screamed and charged. Her fist connected with Harabi's face and he fell back into probably the only space in the entire house not padded with cushions. His head hit the stone floor hard and still rubbing her knuckles, the girl jumped to his side. Lo'gan rolled his eyes at the sight of Harabi wailing in pain and the Miznih crying and soothing him. Eventually they started kissing and the couples went right back to what they were doing. Even the oud started back up again and Lo'gan wondered how they could even breathe with the amount of incense smoking up the place. There were small rooms leading to the bigger one, and watching in exasperation as Miznih carried a limping Harabi into one of them, Lo'gan shook his head and looked around, too disgusted by the disturbing reunion to even stay.
There was a stairway on one side of the room and making his way to it, stopped short when a girl crossed his path. It was the same one that Harabi had put an arm around and she was wearing an all too familiar smile. Lo'gan figured Harabi was gone for the night and he had time, but he couldn't really bring himself to care.
"Sorry, I can't."
The girl looked Lo'gan over and seeing his remarkably heavy purse hanging off his sash, opened her eyes wide.
"Yes you can, let me show you."
Closing the distance to him, she threw her arms around his neck and brought Lo'gan close to her so she could whisper in his ear.
"I can do anything you want."
To Lo'gan's dismay, his body reacted to her words even when his mind didn't want to. He tightened his grip around the girl's waist and pushing her against a wall in the dark stairwell, lowered his face to kiss her lips. The instant his lips touched hers, he felt her tongue move to pry open his mouth. Flashes of the night Salma kissed him came flooding back and after only a few seconds, Lo'gan pulled back. The force at which he did so, caused him to bang the girl into the wall and opening his eyes wide, Lo'gan stared down into her eyes. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but what he saw did not please him.
"What's wrong?"
Lo'gan searched for the right words to describe it, but he himself really didn't know. She was pretty but not what he had been dreaming about for four nights in a row. A very distinct pair of eyes haunted him. Eyes that looked right into him and smiled, this was not it. Giving up on trying to explain that, Lo'gan let go of the girl completely and stepping back abruptly, fished three coins from his purse, without even seeing what they were and pressed them into her hands.
"Sorry."
Turning to face the stairs again, Lo'gan finished his way up the two flights of stairs and was relieved when he saw that they led to the flat roof. Breathing in the cool air, his eyes immediately turned to the sky. It was not the same as the still desert night, but it would do. Sitting down against an edge of the roof, Lo'gan tore off his ghutra and tossed it to the side. He wondered about his horse and about his family and about his dreams for a long time. He had been anxious and fidgety all day and he understood now why that was. He was not in his element and he had to be in order to be content and happy.
Eventually, Lo'gan's eyelids began to weight down on him. Still watching the familiar stars move across the sky, he welcomed sleep knowing for certain that he would dream again of haunting green eyes. They always accompanied his nightmare, but he really didn't care anymore. He needed to feel her, even if it was just a fleeting fantasy where they only shared one kiss and nothing else, because he needed it. In just a few days Lo'gan had grown to realize that she was as essential to him as lifewater itself. He was not sure why, but he needed that girl.
A short distance away in the palace walls, Mari lay in a room, watching the very same stars that Lo'gan did. Valeria had been so sure that she would be in good hands and lead a good life, but Mari already knew that to be false. In less than a half day, she had understood the gravity of her situation and it was disheartening.
Once Battam left with a few quiet words she could not understand and a gracious bow that morning, she had been taken by the woman to a large room deep in the palace bowels. Mari followed the woman whom Battam had given her keys to nervously, not able to see the beautiful art that lined the walls there. All she could fixate on were the keys dangling in the woman's hands and the heavy steps of guards behind her. Unlike the Battam, she wasn't let out of sight for a second and Mari cowered in her hood, not knowing how to shake the terrible feeling in her stomach.
They walked for a good while, until finally reaching an enormous door. It was carved wood with beautiful gold accents and Mari wondered if even the Romans were capable of such fine work. So caught up in the exotic birds carved into it, Mari failed to notice when the woman walked in and only reacted when the guard shoved her into the dim room. Mari looked up, having stepped on a beautifully soft rug. Following the patterns to where they disappeared under a massive bed, Mari looked up in curiosity.
Her hood prevented a clear view, but there was a woman seated on it. She had on a blue robe that seemed to shimmer like water itself and was stitched with golden thread all throughout. Mari gasped at the grandness in it and failed to hear the woman that escorted her in. It was the guard that eventually pushed her down to her knees and realizing that she was before an important person, Mari bowed to her knees like the others did. When they finally stood, Mari did too and watched with unease as the blue robed woman slid off the bed and grabbed for the cane resting by the side.
["Step forward, child."]
Mari looked at the woman who escorted her in and seeing the slight nudge of her head, took a tiny step forward towards the lady in blue. She was old and not exactly beautiful, but very made up and painted very carefully. She wore a sweet smile, but Mari knew it was not her true self. Her eyes were cold and they overshadowed everything else about her.
["Closer, child, closer"]
Mari saw the gesture in her long, elegant hand and took another step forward. She was now at arm's length and not knowing what to expect, bit her lip in fear. The woman saw this and with a smirk, reached out to pull the tie on Mari's anabbayah sash. Mari stood very still and looked down, remembering how coldly Aerius inspected her in what seemed a lifetime ago. The woman moved closer, all the while leaning on her cane. It made her movements almost snakelike in nature and without breaking her fluid movement, she peeled away the black garment. The woman did not gasp or stumble like most, but Mari could see the surprise on her face nevertheless, as her eyes were revealed and her long wavy auburn hair fell over her shoulders. Taking some of it into her fingers, the woman looked into Mari's wide green eyes carefully.
["My son will like you immensely."]
More anxious by her smile than soothed, Mari blinked as the lady moved her gaze down her body. She had worn the column Roman dress and pleased with what she saw, the lady was about to turn and leave when she caught a glimmer of gold peak out from under Mari's sleeve. Before she could even see her move, the woman pulled back the linen to reveal the gold arm band that Valeria had given her. Mari opened her mouth to protest and took a step back.
"It was a gift, from a friend and……"
["Silence!!!"]
Mari startled at the sound that emanated from the old woman and the word still reverberating in the tall chamber, felt herself get yanked by the guard behind her. The woman approached her again in her graceful way and the first impression that Mari had of her was reinforced. With an ugly snarl that changed her entire face, she tore it off Mari's arm while the guard held her.
"No, please, listen to me……"
Mari tried to explain, but the woman's cane to the side of her face silenced her. Even the guard grimaced and eyes watery and cheek red from the blow with the gold tipped cane, Mari fought with the pain not to fall over. She was held up by the guard and watched as the old woman took her beloved gift and examined the mysterious symbols on it. Satisfied by its weight, she lay it down on her table and spoke to Mari's escort without even looking at her.
["Prepare her well for tomorrow. She will be on display and will learn her place soon enough."]
The woman bowed again and holding her stinging cheek, Mari felt the guard bow behind her too. They left the room quickly and pushing her along, the three made their way to the other side of the palace without speaking a word. Once inside another room, Mari was allowed to sit and the guard was dismissed. Still crying bitterly over the loss of Valeria's gift, Mari largely ignored what the woman said to her and spent the rest of the day pretty much unresponsive as they prepared her to the old woman's specifications.
Shedding a tear and touching the tender spot on her cheek, Mari recalled the women that came to help with her preparation. They were about eleven of them and Mari instantly knew they were the Sultan's harem. They were all lavishly dressed in fine fabrics and decked in gold. There hair was braided in ways Mari had never seen before and they worked quickly and quietly, occasionally glancing at her eyes. Mari watched them without any regard of what they were doing to her. They seemed beautiful and she couldn't understand why they were so sad. But gradually she began to notice things.
When one started pressing a compress to her cheek, she saw that she herself had a similar mark on her back. Quickly looking to the next, she saw teeth marks on her shoulder. Another had whip marks across her back and still another had a bruised eye. They were all marked in some fashion and this cemented in Mari that she was in a really bad situation. On the verge of panic, Mari brushed off the women and ran to the windows. Separating the tall heavy curtains, she saw that they were barred and too high for her to escape. Frantically trying the door next, she learned that it was locked. With her chained hands on her head in desperation, she went round and round, crying in near panic until she began to feel faint. It was all too much for her. Valeria had been wrong. She was not safe there. If the Sultan was to be anything like the blue lady, she would be more than slave, she would be a prisoner.
The other wives looked at her sadly, but without shedding a tear as she tore around the room. Finally collapsing on the floor, they moved to help her. Working diligently and quietly, they removed her chains, washed her, pierced her with jewelry the Sultan was sure to like and clothed her again in silks so fine they were transparent. Having woven golden threads into her hair and covered her in priceless myrrh, they then moved to complete the most important of all tasks.
Mixing the sacred henna tannis powder with hot water, oil, lemon juice, coffee, indigo and cloves the women derived a paste. Dipping bone picks to it, they applied it to Mari's pale skin in numerous designs. Mari awoke a few times during the process and too fuzzy to move or ask what they were doing to her, simply faded back into black as the jeweled hands of the women moved expertly over skin. When she regained consciousness that night, she was on a cushiony bed, softer than anything she had experienced before and the women were each sleeping on their own, spread throughout the spacious room.
The only sources of light were the tall windows, which were open to allow breeze to enter. To Mari, it smelled different and walking to it, she exhaled slowly at the view she did not catch the first time. It was the ocean and it glimmered under the moonlight beautifully. Looking up to catch the moon in all its glory, Mari thought of Danea and Valeria. They would see the same sky as her and missing them terribly, moved her hand to the place where her cuff had been. It was gone now and with it, much of Mari's will to live. She touched it every night and dreamed of the day she would return for them. Now she could never get back. Her only guide back home was gone.
Wiping the hot tears that fell from her eyes, angry that she had broken her oath and was crying for her loved ones, Mari noticed something on her hand. Bringing them up to the moonlight, she stared at them for over a minute in awe. They were covered in a black ink that did not wear off. Gasping in shock, Mari pulled at her feathery light clothing she was covered in and almost choked at seeing how much the black designs covered her body. Little animals, stars and geometric paisley patterns trailed in curving lines from her breasts down her sides, curved around her stomach and hips and winded down her legs and arms down to her fingertips. She had numerous rings in her too, one on her bellybutton, several on her ear lobes, and even one on her left nipple. Not knowing what to make of them, Mari went to take them off, but her skin was tender and tight around the little gold rings. She had seen holes in Valeria's ears and decided to leave them alone, or they would get infected. Ripping off her draped skirts angrily, she tossed those instead and buried her face in her hands.
Giving up on the despair she felt knowing that they were there for someone else's benefit, Mari sobbed and wrapped her now freed arms around her knees. Pulling them up to her chest, she rocked herself to still her fear swirling in her stomach and looked up at the familiar sky. Watching it always comforted her and even though her bracelet map was gone, she would find a way. She had to escape or at least die trying.
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