Shadya Tells a Tale..
Shadya's eyes twinkle as she turns to Orlando. "I recall promising you another story not so long ago. Shall I start?"
Orlando bows and smiles. "By all means."
Shadya commences. "It was and it was not said amongst the peoples of the desert that children born under the conjunction of Ashar's Hand would lead - ah, interesting - lives and have - notable - abilities. I do not know if this holds true amongst the Kept Children, but, looking back at my ashiya, one can not but see that there were amongst us several whom Ashar favored well. There was Maysa - whose magnificent strength of arm and personality was coupled with a wild and unkempt temper. There was Nura whose beauty was surpassed only by her single-minded pursuit of magics. And there was Zabbah."
"As I have said at other times, we were of the Temple of Tears. We were foundlings, orphans, children exposed to the desert to live or die as Ashar willed. We have no father to choose mates for us, no tribe to acknowledge us as their own. Life in the desert is too harsh to make room for the unwanted. So, although the tribes are hospitable, as Ashar commands, and they are even willing to foster such as we once we have been claimed by the Temple, they rarely - Oh so rarely! - make a permanent place for an outsider. We have no pedigree, no bloodline, no kin-aid or wealth to bring to a tribe. We may be useful; but our use is always temporary: as mercenaries in time of strife or mages in time of need. What has been rejected from the very beginning is not seen as highly desirable. But we are not outcast; we are Bedu!"
"Once in a very great while, though, one of us displays the right combination of talents: beauty, diplomacy, skills at entertainment, subtlety of intelligence. Such a one is trained to her talents and, if the times are right, is groomed to wed to the advantage of the Temple and to the ruler whose harem she joins." Proudly, "Our Zabbah was such a one and I had the privilege of escorting her to her husband. But such a marriage is always arranged. There is no means for it to be a love match - whatever feelings may arise thereafter. And never, to my knowledge, has one of ours been First Wife to her husband. That is the way of the political world."
"When the word came that our Zabbah had found favor with the lord of [city], there was much excitement in our barracks. Such a thing had not been in our memories. There was to be a wedding! There may have been one or two who wished such a thing had come to them as well, but none - I think - begrudged Zabbah her fortune. And what a time of it we had! New garments of the finest, so to do honour to our sister's bridegroom." Absently Shadya fingers the material of her tunic. It is of wool fine enough almost to drape like silk. "And bride gifts! Damascene blades and carved woods and fine perfumes: treasures that the Temple hoards, I think, against such blessed events. And organization! Mistress Halima - head of household - must have been in her element! Then, when the bridegroom's party arrived - ah! the entertainment we showed him could make a sheik boast: feasting and hunting and hawking and dancing ... although," she turns again to Orlando, "my sword brother, know that amongst my people men and women do not dance together." The smile can be heard in the veiled warrior's voice.
She continues, "At celebration's end, after the lord had made my sister-that-was truly his own, an escort was formed to take her to her new home. I was assigned to that escort - and I was ready and excited to see the world at last. My ashiya was broken and it was my time now. In somewise however, the fact that the ashiya could provide no more warriors than I, led unintentionally to the rest of my tale."
"The lord's head-of-guards was some young cousin of his, broad and rash and vain, I think, in the privilege of a first command. He must also have been city-bred and unaware of the particulars of life in our Temple; this must have been so - for he assigned me a billet with a brace of his men! In his defense, I am tall and strong and had not displayed amongst the dancers when my duty was to guard the bride. Too, in the newness of my position, I was not prone to speaking up. He took me, no doubt for a youth. When at last I did speak, it went 'round the camp like wildfire: Al Wahhab -- may Ashar pity him -- did not know a woman from a man! I could not help but see the light of hatred in his eyes thereafter, although he took care to look through me and always gave his orders through another. A poor start, you would say, to my new life." Shadya shakes her head solemnly.
"When the lord of my sister-that-was heard, I am told he laughed - which did me no good, I think. But he had the fairness of mind to have my skills tested, and he did not find them wanting. It was he, I am told, that ordered I be given my most common assignment once we actually reached the city: that of guard to the inner harem. I think it amused him to find that a woman could well guard other women. For my part, I am grateful to him. It was, by Ashar's will, a lonely life for me in the lord's barracks; he had too few women amongst his men-at-arms and two of those had formed bonds with two of Al Wahhab's men.. Al Wahhab himself, by virtue of his kinship to his lord, held many of the guards therein by clan and client ties. The harem, then, became a source of escape for me. As my sister-that-was made friends and alliances, I was invited to spend off-hours with them - as long as I was not present when their lord wanted their company. I assure you that the company of conversant, intelligent, and high-minded women may well be as great a relief to a woman in my position as they are intended to be for their lord, if, assuredly, in not so many ways."
"A few months went by in this way, and the strain of avoiding the - tricks - of Al Wahhab's guards must have started to show. Zabbah expressed concern and would have sent me back to the Temple at once. But her small sweet-server spoke up -- Ashar bless the child! -- and said that she had overheard some of Al Wahhab's bullies describing what they would do to that 'parody of a woman' if she were ever sent out on her own where they could catch her. Then the child apologized! Apologized to me! For believing that they had been talking about me! Is it any wonder that Ashar made children to cherish!" Shadya digresses and her glance brushes Nasir once again. Almost apologetically, Shadya returns her attention back to Orlando and Fiamma. "The Prophet -- may Ashar be praised -- warned against limiting women to only one role and, amongst my people, most, I think, follow the Prophet's teaching. I have only in the time of which I tell experienced this kind of prejudice. I would not have you think it common and would not have mentioned it had it not been so much a part of this one story."
"It was Zabbah who conceived the way out of this bind. She arranged with her lord that a group of the ladies would go observe the hawking later in the week. She ordered a picnic and several of the horses - including my Noor - to carry the baggage. Then she and the others dressed me as one of themselves. I think they had not had such amusement in many, many days; there was such giggling and teasing. Once the tent had been set up in the park, the ladies hid me amongst themselves therein while I resumed my 'customary' garb. Then I took myself and Noor away." Her laughing voice is very much directed at Orlando as she finishes, "Thus it was that a guard escaped a harem dressed in woman's guise."
She sobers quickly. "Alas, it was not that easy. Even on picnic, the harem is guarded. We had thought I could pass myself off as another guard on patrol. But as Ashar would have it, Al Wahhab himself was part of the hawking party and his bird -- may Ashar acknowledge its wisdom -- had refused to fly. When we had thought that he was busy with his lord and the sport, in fact, he had stormed back in a black mood. Perhaps he, too, sought a little solitude, for he came upon me in a copse of wood just as I was prepared to mount and ride away. I think all his anger at fate welled up at that moment for he rushed me with weapon drawn. I think I should have died then and there save -- ah, who can fathom Ashar's will? I must presume that, having me at weapon point, he wished to shame me before I died. He reached out and pulled down my veil and paused -- Ashar be praised! It was all the time I needed to draw my own dagger and sheath it in his breast." The desert warrior's voice is grim and implacable as Justice itself. "He had not the right to uncover me and so my shame had to be washed away in his blood!"
"Having little with me but what the harem had managed for me, which -- Ashar bless Zabbah's foresight -- included horse and weapons and armor, I hired myself to the first caravan that I found leading away from the area. And that, your lordship, is how I come to have friends within the harem walls."
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