The southernmost edges of the Rub al-Khali
Lo'gan and Mari huddled against the wind and bobbed in unison as Nayif trotted alongside the procession of people and animals that constituted the Shammar clan. They had traveled ten days out of Ma'in and the land was finally beginning to show the tell-tall signs of the vast desert that lay just beyond. Normally, that would be a welcome sight to everyone in the caravan tired of cramped city life, but this particular time, the desert they were walking back into looked remarkably different from the one they left behind only one month ago.
It was hotter and the air felt heavy which worried many people. At this point, the humidity of the coast should have vanished completely, but instead it hung on, following them further than necessary into the al-Khali. The subject on everyone's lips was why. Everyone had theories and everyone had ideas, but the truth to the matter was that only one person really knew. Unfortunately, Lo'gan was still reluctant to reveal his thoughts to anyone. With his father, it was easy to speak of his intuitions, but with Shammar, he still had lingering doubts. It would be awkward and Shammar will no doubt ask him why he felt those things. It wasn't that he was embarrassed of revealing his thoughts; it was simply a question that he couldn't answer. Lo'gan didn't know why, it just was.
He knew for instance, that giant air masses hovered over the land in great blankets. Those blankets shifted and moved and when given the right conditions, even collided with one another. And after months of speculation, Lo'gan finally understood what he had been feeling for so long. The blankets of air that covered the Arabian lands were falling out of sync and like any device that breaks unexpectedly, that could only mean disaster.
For the last few days, he had been especially quiet, even prompting a few sad inquiries from Mari to ask if he was okay. He brushed them all off and kept going, his mind processing and finally putting together what he had been witnessing for weeks on end. The natural order of things was slipping and as excited as he was over that profound discovery, he was equally burdened to find a way to deal with it.
Everyone knew that the skies over the desert were dry, hot and light and that the coastal air was heavy, moist and cool. What they did not know was that those winds sometimes moved enough to overlap and when they did, each unleashed all of the power they possessed. Together, the storm would have twice the intensity to fuel its fury. The rainstorm over Ma'in had been the beginning, but by no means a full manifestation of what was coming. The rainstorm they had encountered had somehow not transformed into a sandstorm and tired itself out over the dunes. It had stalled at the plains bordering the desert and waited and Lo'gan was sure that if he traveled seven days back to Ma'in that the rain would still be there. He had made a critical assumption in thinking the rain had died out after five days, the way it always did. Instead, they had simply walked out of its range.
Lo'gan furrowed his brow in concern and pressed his covered face to Mari's head as the final pieces fell into place. The masses would meet and they would do so right where they were. Right where the desert began and the plains ended. Right where the Shammar and another half dozen clans were crossing to get home.
Closing his eyes at the costly revelation, Lo'gan yanked at his stallion's reins and trotted up ahead to reach Shammar. Mari startled and asked what was wrong, but Lo'gan had little time to explain. Kissing her head tenderly through the edge of the ghutra that covered his nose and mouth, Lo'gan muttered that everything would be fine and caught up to the young sheik.
Shammar squinted at him through the slit in his ghutra and immediately at alert asked what was wrong. Lo'gan simply told him to call a meeting right away. By now all of the horsemen including Harabi had caught up to the two and Shammar weighed his options carefully.
Two mornings ago, shamals, which are sand-laden winds from the northern deserts, started to blow. They could last for weeks on end and swirl at 25-30 miles an hour. To make things worse, they brought sumooms, which are small vortexes of intense wind with them. Sumooms had been known to pick up entire camels with full gear without effort. Together the shamals and sumooms wrecked complete havoc on the two things essential for desert travel by erasing landmarks and shutting out the sky for long periods of time.
Fortunately, they were still at a point where they could see the sky, but Shammar knew it could be just a matter of time. Tomorrow morning they would most likely awaken to a world completely transformed. Already travel was near impossible and in their briefing that morning, the sheik had put to a vote whether or not they should continue. The vote was unanimous for one more day, but as mid morning approached and the sandstorm began to show its true strength, it became clear that they would not have a full day's travel. Lo'gan seemed to have a sixth sense about the winds, even predicting the sumooms in their last meeting so it would not hurt to hear him out again.
Decision made, the sheik turned to face his assembled warriors and ordered a complete stop for the day. He picked out two massive dunes that would offer some protection up ahead and gave the orders for a tight-huddled, protective camp between them. Accepting the decision without question, the horsemen immediately fell away to begin the process of stopping the hundred or so animals. With a curt nod to Lo'gan, Shammar himself then pulled to the head of the procession and blew the horn that signaled a uniform order.
Mari was usually very eager to ask Lo'gan about what the different signals meant, but she completely ignored them now, turning to look at Lo'gan pointedly. Lo'gan was too lost in thought, however, to really notice. That was what scared Mari the most. A few days back, she thought Lo'gan was upset over their situation, and although he probably was, he was preoccupied by something else now. Something she figured had something to do with the unruly weather they were presently in. Resuming her position on the saddle, Mari held him tightly as they made their way to the location that was obviously going to be their new camp.
Fifteen minutes later, she was looking at him retreat to where Harabi was waiting for him under Shammar's hastily set up canopy. He had given her a solemn half squeeze before he left and Mari couldn't help but feel miserable that Lo'gan couldn't even speak to her.
She had thought that things had actually gotten better the past few days. It still hurt to not talk or touch as much, but Lo'gan seemed to have understood where she was coming from. He still looked at her longingly and stood close by in case she needed something and it absolutely pained her to see him try and not touch in all those little ways that she craved, but it was all for the best. That was her mantra and she hoped it would be enough to keep her from flinging her arms around him and never letting go.
Sniffing back the tears before they threatened to show themselves, Mari moved to dismount Nayif and decided it was better to keep busy until he came back. It was pretty clear that whatever was going on was upsetting him immensely and wise or not, she had to help him with it.
Walking Nayif to the furthest edge of the tight concentric circle the Shammar clan was settling into, Mari pet him down a little. She didn't know how to set up a tent yet, but at least she could round up the animals and fetch her and Lo'gan's things. Adjusting her veil, Mari moved to retrieve the camel in the procession that belonged to Lo'gan. At first she couldn't tell any of them apart, but at this point she was confident she could pick Lira out of a hundred camels lined up.
Lira was especially tall, but not very gangly, had a medium sized lump, a darker colored coat and a very thick wool over her head. All in all one of the most well behaved camels in the bunch and thanks to her, now one of the better-looking ones. Mari had added a nice amount of fringe to her leads and harness and even a nice back blanket she traded for a little gold cat pin. Leading her to the spot she picked out for Nayif, Mari made sure she complimented her enough also, even getting on her tiptoes and reaching up as best she could to pet her head and offer her a date. It was something none of the others did, but she figured if an animal has carried her things without complaint in the heat and sand for hours on end, it deserved a little affection with its water as well.
Done a few minutes later with the petting, Mari looked around to see that many of the women were already done with setting their tents. Sighing heavily at her utter uselessness, Mari commanded Lira to sit and when she did after several tries, moved to unbuckle the many fittings around the camel's midsection. It was a task she could complete fairly well with the widow Nisee's camel, but Lo'gan's fastenings were tighter and his knots more complicated. Squinting against the sand that whipped around her, Mari continued to attack the super tight fittings in an effort to retrieve her things. It was useless however and stressed out about the storm, worried about Lo'gan and feeling helpless for being unable to even open a pack eventually gave up and sat against Lira. Nayif was watching her closely from nearby and Mari kicked at the sand in front of her in exasperation.
It was not a smart move however, and since the wind was blowing towards her, Mari was hit in the face with a handful of sand. Her veil had slipped so low, it did little to protect her from it and suddenly angry, Mari blinked the grit out of her eyes with tears and adjusted it a little higher. Nayif whinnied in criticism and defeated, Mari pulled her knees into a hug. She was upset, but she needed to calm down and it would not help to kick sand in her own face. Closing her eyes like she had seen Lo'gan do when he was trying to concentrate, Mari snuggled up against Lira's wooly side and tried breathing deeper. The headcloth covering the lower half of her face did not help much, but at least it blocked the sand out.
Slowly allowing her mind to ease, Mari was taken back to when she first traveled with Battam. Everything was so new and strange at that time and she often found herself wondering about the headdresses that Arabian women wore. They folded a very large square piece of black linencloth into a triangle and secured it tightly around their heads like a kerchief with the drape flowing down their backs. It was an odd accessory that she didn't understand, but having had crossed the deserts to Ma'in under good conditions with a hooded cloak on, had little use for.
In the past few days, however, the desert had come alive and even Lo'gan draped his long ghutra ends over the bottom half of his face. The winds whipped at her clothes and grated her skin relentlessly and she suddenly understood the practicality of headdresses. Lo'gan had given her one he traded from the widow Nisee a few days back and she had worn it ever since. Like everyone else, the only parts of her face visible now were her eyes. In a way it made Mari feel good. She looked just like everybody else and that had an amazing appeal to it. The only problem was that she was curled up next to a camel in a sandstorm instead of inside a tent like everyone else.
Rolling her eyes and gathering her conviction, Mari stood up on her feet and turned to face the pack on Lira's back that miraculously turned into a home in the right hands for a second try. But before she could even get started, something drew her attention and temporarily made her forget the relentless winds all around her. Squinting with all her might in an effort to sharpen her vision, Mari looked beyond Lira's imposing hump to the dunes in the distance and the strange beacon she saw there. A few seconds later, she was gone, her footprints instantly erased by the wind behind her.
Lo'gan scratched his head in annoyance and looked at Shammar once more. He had been trying to convince him and his counsel that the best weather was back on the plains, but was having a hell of a time trying to put his point across. After having traveled and slept in mud for a half week, the Shammar were simply not crazy about going back.
"So will you do it?"
The sheik let out a long, pained breath and shook his head.
"I have many reasons why I shouldn't; the weather is always better over the dunes, the animals are not built for mud travel, you will be unsafe back in Ma'in territory and we already have five people sick from cold. It is not acceptable and if we return, more will get sick. If my animals catch illness then we will lose entire herds."
Lo'gan tightened his jaw and reiterated his counter argument once more in a slow deliberate tone. He hated politics, negotiations and the like, but it seemed that was all he was involved in since heading out to Ma'in.
"This is not your typical storm. It will get much, much worse before it gets better and you will have more liabilities if you get lost in it. Tomorrow you will see the sun and stars no more and you will be walking in circles. Turn around now and you can plunk down in the rain for a while longer. You said so yourself, your traders will not be up north for at least three months and Harabi and me can leave you to avoid attracting trouble. It can be done."
A grumble passed through the crowd of gathered men and Shammar rubbed his left temple. Lo'gan waited patiently while the sheik gathered his thoughts.
"You have a good argument, a valid argument, but you……it is based on the assumption that this storm will intensify. I don't really think it will. But even then I am not sure. How can you, Lo'gan al Jabir, be so sure? Not even the oracles speak with that kind of security."
Harabi turned to look at his partner. It was exactly the same thing he was wondering. Lo'gan took his customary pause before beginning again.
"Because I do. This storm will cripple you and if you do not head back by tomorrow it will be too late. I realize my word may not be enough for the men gathered here, but it is what I know. You can choose how you see fit. I will leave you to decide."
Having said all he was going to, Lo'gan stood to leave. Harabi followed him and the remaining horsemen began to all speak at once regarding the situation. Shammar stayed where he was and tuned out the commotion. He knew the horsemen would be divided and the decision would come down on him. It was never easy making decisions where people will always be displeased and he longed for his father's guidance. He was always so sure of himself and Shammar would give anything to feel a fraction of that confidence at that moment. It all came down to trusting Lo'gan or his common sense and it was a harder decision than he thought possible.
Lo'gan raised the cloth that served to cover his features as he walked out of Shammar's canopy and immediately looked to the borders of the camp cluster to where he knew Mari would be. He hadn't exactly been forthcoming with her with what he had been contemplating and she was worried. Ready or not, he had to speak to her. Nodding absently when Harabi bid farewell and went to find his own gear, Lo'gan cut a path through the wind to the edge of the camp being set up against twenty mile an hour wind.
Spotting Nayif off to one side hoofing the ground under him, Lo'gan walked to him, finding it odd that he was alone and Mari nowhere around. Catching the reins dangling on the ground, Lo'gan figured Mari was really upset at him. She usually waited around and watched him unpack and asked what things were. It still fascinated her to see a bundle turn into a home, but lately, in keeping with their new awkwardness, she just watched. Thinking she finally decided to just give up on him completely, Lo'gan pet Nayif's long snout poignantly. Maybe it was better this way. A quick finish now would save them the heartache later. Only it still ached now and that was just unbearable.
Eventually he turned to see where his camel was, knowing that if he stood there and thought about Mari, he would be paralyzed for hours. And why do it now if he had all night to torture himself? Patting Nayif half-heartedly one last time, Lo'gan walked to the nearby train that connected the pack animals to find his. Only she wasn't there. Lida was a usually a very reliable animal, but she had the tendency to wander if left untied. Bracing a hand against the wind to see better, Lo'gan searched the camp. She couldn't have gotten very far and was probably raiding someone's date supply.
Knowing exactly what he needed to do, Lo'gan walked back along the perimeter of the camp to open one of the small packs he had fitted on Nayif's saddle. Alongside his short dagger and water, he had a small suede pouch full of dates that he used to draw the beast in. He typically didn't like to travel with so much food, but since his runaway camel pulled this stunt at least once a week, it was a necessity. What Lo'gan didn't expect however, was to find his date pouch opened, half empty and judging from the sticky residue over the remaining dates, slimed in camel saliva. Throwing down what remained of his emergency camel dates to the ground, Lo'gan turned to look at his stallion.
"And you let her do this?"
Nayif flickered his ears and said nothing, leaving Lo'gan alone in his search. He started by looking down on the ground. The blowing wind was making a good job of hiding the evidence, but the ground was still littered in date bits. Walking alongside them, Lo'gan followed the sparse trail until it disappeared into the sand. It was then that Lo'gan looked up and almost choked when he spotted a tall hump in the distance. Lira had mysteriously walked into the desert and for the life of him, Lo'gan couldn't figure out why. But it would do no good to wait any longer to go fetch her.
Walking back to Nayif, Lo'gan mounted his horse and tiredly headed off in Lira's direction. At that same instant, Shammar had left his canopy to find Lo'gan and tell him of his decision. Except it was already too late and Lo'gan was gone. Straining to see what it was that propelled him to suddenly just pick up and leave, the young sheik sent for Harabi and went to fetch his horse as well.
Mari's feeling that she had done something amazingly stupid quadrupled when she crossed the last sand bank leading to the fire. It was already difficult to breathe, but the smell of burning and the smoke made it near impossible, especially with the wind pushing it in her direction. Everything in her was screaming to turn and run back to the Shammar camp, but curiosity drove her and she had a strong suspicion that she couldn't find her way back in the thick storm even if she tried. She was as good as lost and after twenty minutes of walking against the wind, tired as well.
Finding her resolve now mixed with fear, Mari used her hands to help climb up the last sand dune that stood between her and the mystery. Almost to the top, Mari paused and looked back one last time. Seeing nothing of the Shammar camp and feeling incredibly foolish for having gone alone, she crouched down low to the ground before crawling to the top. What she saw almost made her throw up.
It was a camel, still wearing its pack; charred and smoldering and irrevocably dead. Mari's stomach turned and slapping one hand over it and another over her mouth, gagged on the smell. It was awful and as her field of vision improved in the wind, Mari realized that it was not the only one. Just beyond it there was another and after that another. Mari squinted in the gusty wind and let out a gasp when it blew the smoke clear away to reveal the complete story. The entire valley was littered with burnt heaps and among the blackened corpses of camels, Mari could make out smaller shapes, huddled protectively into themselves like……people.
Feeling her stomach wretch violently, Mari tore her headdress off in time to empty her breakfast onto the sand. Her stomach seized on her a couple of times and when nothing else came up, Mari staggered to her feet and stumbled back down the dune. It took her a second to process what she had seen but what was out there was not just a few corpses. She had the distinctly lucid feeling that if she would have continued past the first few bodies, the valley behind it would reveal an entire clan dead in the sand – people and all.
Tightening her eyes shut, Mari felt her head grow faint and her legs buckle. She landed on her knees again, and now uncovered to the elements, fought to keep breathing in the swirling sandstorm. It was not easy in the least. Kneeling at the foot of the dune, Mari covered her face with her hands and willed her nerves to calm down. She needed to think clearly and she needed to do it quick. Her panicked mind reached out with a single name only a second later. Lo'gan. She had to go back and tell Lo'gan.
Embracing the idea with every bit of resolve she had left, Mari got to her feet and was about to start walking back to where she thought the Shammar camp was when a bellow stopped her in her tracks. Mari blinked and hoped it was all her imagination, but that defiant little voice inside her assured her that it wasn't. The possibility that whoever had done this horrible thing, might still be near didn't cross her until then and Mari had to actually struggle to not let her reasoning mind be overcome with fear.
Suddenly the priority was not to head back to camp, but to avoid that sound again at all costs. There was practically no way she could see very far past the sand swirling around her, so Mari thought back to an old trick her Uncle Cloarin had taught her. Finding the ability to move again, Mari crouched low to the ground and closed her eyes to listen for the sound again.
It was a good long minute before the sound repeated but when it did, it was directly behind Mari's left ear. Terrified beyond comprehension, Mari screamed and started running blindly into the storm. Equally terrified, Lida bellowed again in response and ran after Mari. Of course Lida was a much faster runner and she had no difficulty keeping up with her keeper, actually bunting her head against Mari's side. This caused Mari to stumble again and fall hard. Fortunately, Mari's clouded mind recognized the wooly neck pressed to her and now seeing her attacker clearly, stared at the camel for a few seconds before launching herself at the wooly beast.
The relief to see Lida, so alive and whole was overwhelming. Remembering she had two more dates left in her cloak pocket, Mari offered them to the camel before taking Lida's leads. Wiping her tears away, Mari looked around again and temporarily disoriented as to which way to go looked for smoke. When she spotted it, trailing gray and thin into the swirling sky not too far away, Mari started walking in the opposite direction, leading her camel and moving as fast as she could in the swirling sand with a protective arm over her face.
Now completely blind against the wind, Mari trudged through the sand unaware that Lo'gan was just minutes away. He had heard her scream carried by the wind and was now speeding over the fading trail his camel had left behind. Eventually they were completely gone, but something new caught his eye. In his rush to follow Lida, he had somehow missed the faint smoke up ahead. Dropping his face protection to gather at his neck, Lo'gan sampled the air and confident that there was definite trouble, tore off again at full speed.
Eyes fixed on the trailing smoke, he almost failed to notice the huddle of his camel up ahead. It was only out of luck that a gust of wind cleared his visibility and he realized who it was.
"Mari!!"
Clutching her chest in the third fright she had suffered in less than ten minutes, Mari choked on a sob and dropped Lida's reins. She couldn't make out the figure in the distance, but the voice was unmistakable. Breaking into a full run, she screamed for the one person that could make it better.
"Lo'gan!"
Peering as best he could through the thrashing sand, Lo'gan bounded off his horse before it had even stopped and ran to Mari. Her hair was everywhere and she was crying, redder then Lo'gan had ever seen her and he didn't know where to begin. Squeezing tight, Lo'gan breathed into her hair.
"Dammit, Mari. What the hell are you doing out here?"
Remembering her ghastly discovery, Mari pushed off of Lo'gan and looked back from where she came. Lo'gan furrowed his brow in concern. In his rush to follow his wandering camel and then the scream he heard, he had temporarily forgotten about the smoke dissipating into the wind. Nayif hoofed angrily behind him, showing his distaste for the one thing he hated even more than rain. Lo'gan stilled him with an order and turned back to Mari. Behind them, Shammar and Harabi were arriving, just in time to hear Mari's words. Lo'gan hadn't known he was being followed, but glad that he was, acknowledged them with a nod and cradled Mari's face in concern.
"Did you see?"
Mari nodded furiously, causing the tears that had welled in her eyelids to spill over.
"Yes, Lo'gan. Dead camels…Bedoiuns. Dead."
Hearing all he had to, Harabi pulled back on his horse, dismounted and withdrew his Khanjar. He too had seen the smoke and the smell in the air could not be a good one. Shammar stood behind a second longer, never having seen Mari so uncovered. Mesmerized by the strange auburn hair whipping around her face, he didn't move until Lo'gan kissed her forehead and mumbled something about smoke. Snapping into himself, Shammar dismounted too to follow Harabi and give the couple a moment.
Mari barely noticed their departure, focusing solely on the man before her. She wasn't so sure about Lo'gan leaving, but she knew there really was no choice. Lo'gan kissed away the tears he could off her face and moved her to where Nayif was snorting distastefully.
"I need you to stay here, Mari, understand? With Nayif."
Mari sniffed once more and nodded, flickering her irritated eyes to the two shapes that were climbing the sand dune to the gory scene beyond it. This was a serious situation and definitely not the time to act childish. Letting go of Lo'gan's robe reluctantly, Mari leaned into the stallion behind her and tried her hardest to look confident.
"Lo'gan go. Mari okay."
Lo'gan searched her face, torn between running to join the others and taking Mari back to camp. But already in the background he could hear an angry exchange of words between Harabi and Shammar, so there was really no choice. Finding Lida's leads, he quickly tied them to Nayif's saddle brunt and helped Mari up into the saddle.
"Just stay here with Nayif and Lida and I'll be back. I'll be right back, darling."
Lo'gan squeezed Mari's hand to make sure she understood and seeing enough indication that she did, pulled off the drape around his neck and wrapped it tightly around Mari's head. Mari clutched at the linen gratefully and Lo'gan turned to join the other two horsemen. They were already at the top of the dune in question and their body language was not very assuring.
Lo'gan could see that Harabi was shaking his head in distaste and Shammar had a hand on his forehead. What was more distressing was the Khanjar in the sheik's right hand. Lo'gan wasn't sure, but he would have sworn Shammar didn't even carry one. The fact that he was gripping one so tightly now was not a good omen. Jogging the last of the way to catch up to them, Lo'gan held his breath in preparation and charged ahead into the unknown.
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