prepare your ship for sea. I will need your services as a scout when you lead the fleet to this Nativity Bay."
Laleh retreated backwards, bowing and making obeisance with each few steps towards the doors.
When the guards and all lesser men had gone, a silence fell on the council. All three waited for Zayn's next pronouncement. He seemed sunk in a deep reverie, like that of the bhang smoker. But at last he roused himself, and looked to Kadem ibn Abubaker.
"You are bound by a blood oath to avenge the death of your father at the hands of al-Salil."
Kadem bowed deeply. "That oath is more dear to me than my life."
"Your soul has been desecrated by al-Salil's brother, Tom Courtney. He wrapped you in the skin of a pig, and threatened to bury you alive in the same grave as the obscene animal."
Kadem ground his teeth at the memory. He could not bring himself to admit how he had been defiled and humiliated, but he sank to his knees. "I beg you, my Caliph and brother of my father, to allow me to seek satisfaction for these terrible wrongs that have been perpetrated against me by these two diabolical brothers."
Zayn nodded thoughtfully, and turned to Sir Guy. "Consul General, your daughter has been abducted by the son of al-Salil. Your magnificent ship has been pirated and your great store of wealth stolen from you."
"All this is true, Majesty."
Zayn turned at last to Pasha Herminius Koots. "You have suffered humiliation and your honour has been besmirched at the hands of this same family."
"I have suffered all these afflictions."
"As for me, the list of my own grievances against al-Salil goes back to my childhood," Zayn al-Din said. "It is too long and painful for me to recite here. We have a common purpose, and that is the eradication of this nest of venomous reptiles and pork-eaters. We know that they have accumulated a considerable store of gold and ivory. Let that be only the pepper sauce that piques our appetite for retribution." He paused again, and looked from one to the other of his generals.
"How long will you need to draw up a battle plan?" he asked them.
"Mighty Caliph, before whom all your enemies are turned into dust and ashes, Pasha Koots and I will not sleep or eat until we are able to lay the battle order before you for your approval," Kadem promised.
Zayn smiled. "I would have accepted nothing less from you. We will meet here again after tomorrow's evening prayers to hear your plan."
"We will be ready for you at that hour," Kadem assured him.
The war council continued by the light of five hundred lamps, whose wicks floated in perfumed oils to drive away the clouds of mosquitoes that, as soon as the sun touched the horizon, swarmed from the swamps and cesspools outside the city walls.
Peter Peters fell into his accustomed place behind Sir Guy Courtney as they made their way through the labyrinth of passages towards the royal harem at the rear of the vast sprawling palace. The walls smelt of rot, fungus and two hundred years of neglect. Rats scurried away ahead of the torch-bearers as they escorted the Caliph to his bedchamber, and the tramp of the bodyguard echoed hollowly from the domes and cavernous recesses of the walls.
The Caliph kept up a high-pitched monologue, and Peters translated the words almost as they fell from his lips. When the Caliph paused, Peters translated Sir Guy's response just as swiftly. At last they reached the doors to the harem where a party of armed eunuchs waited to take over the escort duty, for no natural man other than the Caliph was permitted beyond this point.
The aroma of incense floated from behind the ivory screens and mingled with the scent of lusty young womanhood. Listening intently, Peters fancied he heard the whisper of small bare feet on the flags and the sound of girlish laughter tinkling like tiny golden bells. His fatigue fell away as the cat's claws of lust pricked at his manhood. The Caliph could go to his delights and Peters did not envy him: tonight the palace vizier had promised him something special. "She is a daughter of the Saar, the fiercest of all the tribes of Oman. Although she has seen only fifteen summers she is peculiarly gifted. She is a creature of the desert, a gazelle with pubescent breasts and long slim legs. She has the face of a child and the instincts of a harlot. She delights in the wiles and wonders of love. She will open to you all three of her passageways to bliss." The vizier sniggered. It was part of his duty to learn every personal detail of every inhabitant of the palace. He knew full well in which direction lay Peter Peters's tastes. "Even through the forbidden nether passage she will welcome you. She will treat you like the great lord you truly are, effendi." He knew how much this worthless little clerk enjoyed being given that title.
When at last Sir Guy dismissed him, Peters hurried to his own quarters. In Bombay he lived in three tiny cockroach-infested rooms at the back of the Company compound. The only female companions he
could afford on his miserly salary were the women of the night in their cheap, gaudy saris and brass bangles, their lips and gums stained bloody crimson as sword wounds from betel nut, smelling of cardamom, garlic, curry and the musk of their unwashed genitals.
Here in the palace of Muscat he was treated with honour. Men called him effendi. He had two house slaves to wait upon his every whim. His quarters were sumptuous, and the girls the vizier sent to keep him company were young, sweet and compliant. There was always a new one available as soon as he tired of the old.
When he reached his bedchamber Peters felt the chill of disappointment slide down his spine, for the room was empty. Then he caught the smell of her, like the perfume of a citrus orchard in blossom. He stood in the centre of the room and searched it with his eyes, waiting for her to show herself. For a while nothing moved, and there was no sound except the rustle of the leaves of the tamarind tree that stood on the terrace below the balcony.
Softly Peters quoted a stanza of the Persian poet: '"Her bosom shines like the snow fields of Mount Tabora, her buttocks are bright and round as rising moons. The dark eye that nestles between them gazes implacably into the depth of my soul.""
The curtains that screened the balcony stirred and the girl giggled. It was a childlike sound, and he knew even before he set eyes on her that the vizier had not overstated her age. When she stepped out from behind the curtains, the moonlight struck through the flimsy stuff of her robe and the outline of her body was waif like She came to him and rubbed herself against him like a cat. When he stroked her small rounded backside through the thin cloth she purred.
"What is your name, my pretty child?"
"I am called Nazeen, effendi." The vizier had instructed her carefully as to Peters's special tastes, and her skills far surpassed her tender years. Many times during the remainder of that long night she made him bawl and bleat like a weaning calf.
In the dawn Nazeen curled into his lap as he sat in the centre of the mattress of goose down. She selected one of the ripe loquats from the silver dish that stood beside the bed, and bit it in half with her small white teeth. She spat out the glossy brown pip and placed the rest of the sweet fruit between Peters's lips. "You made me wait so long last night before you came to me. I thought my heart would break." She pouted.
"I was with the Caliph and his generals until after midnight." Peters could not resist the urge to impress her.
The Caliph himself?" She stared at him with awe. Her eyes were huge and dark. "Did he speak to you?"
"Of course."
"You must be a great lord in your own country. What did the Caliph want of you?"
"He wanted my opinion and advice on matters of the utmost secrecy and importance." She wriggled excitedly in his naked lap, and giggled as she felt him swell and stiffen under her. She rose on to her knees and reached down behind herself with both hands. She spread her tight brown buttocks, then sank back into his lap.
"I do so love secrets," she whispered, and thrust her pink tongue deep into his ear.
Nazeen spent five more nights with Peters, and when they were not otherwise engaged they talked a great deal or, more accurately, Peters talked and the
girl listened.
On the fifth morning when he came to fetch her, while it was still dark, the vizier promised Peters, "She will return to you again tonight," and led her away by the hand to a side gate of the palace, where an old man of the Saar waited, kneeling patiently beside an equally ancient camel. The vizier swathed Nazeen in a dark camel-hair shawl and lifted her on to the dilapidated saddle.
The city gates opened with the sunrise, and there followed the usual exodus and influx of desert folk who had come in to sell their wares, or who were returning into the vast wilderness: pilgrims and petty officials, traders and travellers. Among those leaving were the two riders on the old camel. There was nothing about them to excite interest or envy. Nazeen looked like the old man's grandchild. It was not easy to tell her gender under the shabby robe that covered her head and body. They rode away through the palm groves and none of the guards at the gate bothered to watch them go.
A little before noon the travellers spied a goatherd squatting on a crag of the barren hills. His herd of a dozen motley beasts was spread out among the rocks below him, nibbling at the desiccated twigs of the saltbush. The goatherd was playing a mournful little tune on his reed pipes. The old rider halted his camel and prodded its neck with his goad until it hissed, bellowed a protest and knelt in the sand. Nazeen slipped off its back and ran lightly up the rocky crag, throwing back the hood of her robe as she went towards the goatherd.
She prostrated herself before him and kissed the hem of his robe. "Mighty Sheikh bin-Shibam, father of all my tribe, may Allah sweeten every day of your life with the perfume of jasmine blossom."
"Nazeen! Sit up, child. Even here in the wilderness there may be eyes watching us."
"My lord, I have much to relate," Nazeen babbled. Her dark eyes sparkled with excitement. "Zayn is sending no less than fifteen war dhows!"
"Nazeen, draw a deep breath, then speak slowly but miss nothing, not a word of what the ferengi Peters has told you."
As she prattled away bin-Shibam's face darkened with concern. Little Nazeen had an extraordinary memory, and she had been able to milk the most minute details from Peters. Now she effortlessly recited the numbers of men and the names of the dhow captains whose ships would carry them southwards. She gave him the exact date and state of the tide on which the fleet would sail, and the date on which they expected to arrive at Nativity Bay. When she finished, the sun was half-way down the sky. However bin-Shibam had one last question for her: Tell me, Nazeen, has Zayn al-Din announced who is to command the expedition? Is it to be Kadem ibn Abubaker or the ferengi Koots?"
"Great Sheikh, Kadem ibn Abubaker is to command the ships, and the ferengi Koots the warriors who go ashore. But Zayn al-Din in person will sail with the fleet and take the supreme command."
"Are you sure, child?" he demanded. It seemed too great a stroke of good fortune.
"I am certain. He told his war council, and these are the exact words that Peters repeated to me, "My throne will never be secure as long as al-Salil still lives. I want to be there at the day of his death, and to wash my hands in his heart blood. Only then will I believe that he is dead."
"As your mother has said to me, Nazeen, you are worth a dozen warriors in the battle against the tyrant."
Nazeen hung her head shyly. "How is my mother, great Sheikh?"
"She is well cared-for, as I promised. She asked me to tell you how much she loves you and how proud she is of what you are doing."
Nazeen's dark eyes glowed with pleasure. Tell my mother that I pray for her every day." Nazeen's mother was blind: the flies had laid their eggs under her eyelids, and the maggots had burrowed into her eyeballs. Without Nazeen she would long ago have been abandoned, for the desert life is pitiless. Now, however, she lived under the personal protection of Sheikh bin-Shibam.
Bin-Shibam watched the girl go back down the hill and mount behind the camel rider. They set off again in the direction of the city. He felt no guilt or remorse for what he had required Nazeen to do. When it was over, when al-Salil sat once more upon the Elephant Throne, he would find her a good husband. If that was what she wanted.
Bin-Shibam smiled and shook his head. He sensed that she was one of those born with a natural talent and appetite for her vocation. Deep down, he knew that she would never give up the excitement of the city for the austere, aesthetic life of the tribe. She was not a woman who would place herself willingly under the domination of a husband.
"That little one could take care of a hundred men. Perhaps I could do better for her simply by taking care of her blind mother, and leaving her to work out her own destiny. Go in peace, little Nazeen, and be happy," he whispered after the distant shape of the camel, as it disappeared in the purple haze of fading day. Then he whistled and after a while the true goatherd came out of his hiding-place among the rocks. He knelt before bin-Shibam and kissed his sandal led feet. Bin-Shibam shrugged off the faded robe, and handed it back to him.
"You heard nothing. You saw nothing," he said.
"I am deaf, blind and dumb," the goatherd agreed. Bin-Shibam gave him a coin, and the man wept with gratitude.
Bin-Shibam crossed the ridge and went down to where he had left his own camel knee-haltered. He mounted, turned her head southwards, and rode through the night and the following day without pause. He ate a handful of dates and drank thick curds of camel's milk from the skin bladder that hung behind his saddle. He even prayed on the march.
In the evening he smelt the sea salt. Still without check he rode on through the night. In the dawn the ocean lay spread before him like an infinite shield of silver. From the hills he saw the fast felucca anchored just off the beach. The captain, Tasuz, was a man who had proven himself many times over. He sent a small boat to the beach to fetch bin-Shibam aboard.
Bin-Shibam had brought with him writing materials. He sat cross legged on the deck with the scroll before him and wrote down all that Nazeen had been able to tell him. He ended with the words, "Majesty, may God grant you victory and glory. I shall wait with all the tribes to welcome you when you return to us." By the time he had finished, the day was far spent. He gave the scroll to Tasuz. "Surrender this only into the hands of Caliph al-Salil. Give your own life rather than this scroll to another," he ordered. Tasuz could neither read nor write, so the report was safe with him. He already had detailed sailing directions for Nativity Bay. Like many illiterate people, he had an infallible memory. He would not forget a single detail.
"Go with God, and may He fill your sail with His sacred breath." Bin Shibam dismissed him.
"Stay with God, and may angels spread their wings over you, great sheikh," Tasuz replied.
It was one hundred and three days later that Tasuz picked out the towering whale-backed bluff that his sailing orders had described, and as he steered into the lagoon he recognized the three tall ships that he had last seen anchored in Muscat harbour.
The entire Courtney family were gathered in the refectory, the central room in the main block of Fort Auspice where they spent much of their leisure time. It had taken Sarah four years to furnish it to its present state of homely comfort. The floor and all the furniture had been lovingly made by the carpenters from indigenous timber, stink wood, tam bootie and black wood magnificently grained and polished with beeswax to a warm lustre. The women had embroidered the cushions and stuffed them with wild kapok. The floors were covered with tanned animal skins. The walls were decorated with framed paintings, most of which had been executed by Sarah and Louisa, although Verity, during her short stay at the fort, had made a substantial contribution to the gallery. Sarah's harpsichord had pride of place against the main wall, and now that Dorian and Mansur were back the family choir was at full strength once again.
This evening there was no singing. They were concerned with far more dire affairs. They sat in intent silence and listened to Verity translate into English the long, detailed report that Tasuz had brought them from bin-Shibam in the north. Only one member of the family was less than enthralled
by this recital.
George Courtney was now almost three, highly mobile and articulate, harbouring no doubts about his needs and desires and unafraid to make them known. He circled the table with his chubby buttocks showing under the vest that was his only garment. In front his uncircumcised penis waggled like a small white worm. George was accustomed to having the full attention of all, from the lowliest black servant to that godlike being, Grandpa Tom.
"Wepity!" He tugged imperiously at Verity's skirts. He was still having difficulty with the pronunciation of her name. "Talk to me too!"
Verity faltered. George was not easily appeased. She broke off the recital of lists of men, ships and cannon, and looked down at him. He had his mother's golden hair, and his father's green eyes. He looked so angelic that he squeezed her heart and awakened in her instincts so deep-seated that she had only recently become aware of them. "I will tell you a story after," she offered.
Wilbur Smith - C11 Blue Horizon Page 76
