"When shall we go? At first light? If we wake him from his sleep—"
"We must go now."
She nodded to the young moon as though to bid it farewell. I led the way to Suliman's pavilion. We found Hamyd drowsing by a watch-fire; instantly he rose, looked from my face to Isabel's, and touched his amulet.
"The sheik is asleep," he said, "but if it's something of great moment—which well I know—I'll wake him."
"Wake him and tell him the slave Omar and the Tuareg maiden Izubahil beg audience."
Hamyd vanished within the tent. We saw the curtain glimmer as torches "were lighted, and heard the stir of women setting out water pipes and sweetmeats. In a few minutes Hamyd returned and drew back the curtain for us. Suliman had put on an embroidered caftan, white trousers, and a belt with a golden buckle. I touched hand to heart and forehead as though I were a freeman; he replied and told us to seat ourselves on the carpet.
"I beg leave to speak plainly, and at once," I said.
"Ah, ah."
"In some weeks or months, it's my fate to return to the prison out of which you delivered me, and before I go, I wish to see Izubahil, who has become most dear to me, wedded to one of the Beni Kabir and in his tender care."
"Surely she's of proper age to marry, and, when you are gone, she'll need a husband. If you'll tell me which one of my followers you've chosen as worthy of her hand, I will myself speak to his elder kinsmen so the matter may be pursued."
"I have your leave to speak plainly, so I will. There's only one of the Beni Kabir fitted by ancestry and name and place to become the husband of Izubahil of the Tuareg, and that is Suliman."
Suliman's eyes seemed to change shape in the lamplight, but I could not tell what it boded. He reached for his flint-and-tinder, but Isabel darted forward, took it from his hand, lighted his water pipe, and put its stem between his lips. He puffed until the bowl bubbled with a growling sound.
"A princess of the Tuareg wouldn't be easy to please," he remarked at last. "And since in her own tribe she may say 'aye' or 'nay' to a great emir, let alone a sheik of the Bedouin, I'll ask if she would be agreeable to that marriage."
"O Sheik, as it would be among her people, let it be here," I replied. "Isabel Gazelle, will you answer his question?"
"Suliman ibn Ali, it would give me great joy and pride, and a great hope."
"Spoken like a princess. More, it comes to me that if I die soon, she would bear my name well among her own people, and cast her father's lie into his teeth to rejoice my soul, and—and do other things dear to my heart. But Omar, my son, if I take Isabel Gazelle to wife, not merely as a concubine, it's needful that she be a maiden. That is the law of the Bedouin. Who would warrant it in Allah's name?"
"I'd warrant it, O Sheik."
"It's the word of a slave, but I took it once before, and once before then—in a sea cave in Malta—when you were free. Fourteen and half years have gone by since we ate the bread and salt, and the bond still holds. Omar, she's one of the most beautiful maidens I've ever seen. She is as beautiful as the morning star—you've yearned for her as for the Moon of Ramadan. For the while that I live, she would give me great joy. So I fear that the bride price may be beyond my means."
"It's only that I may ride El Stedoro to the wedding feast." And I could not keep my eyes from filling with tears.
"I'd do more than that. I have a little horsehair band, with brass ends, that I greatly prize, and this I'll present to you, to keep forever."
"I'm your protected, O Sheik."
"Then at sunrise tomorrow I'll declare to my followers my intention of taking Izubahil to wife, and at sundown you shall come for her, at her abode, and you and Timor and the widow her ayah will bring her to my tent, and I shall deliver to you the horsehair band. And on the following day, all the Beni Kabir who have followed the grass with me shall feast, and there will be riding, and games, and at that feast you shall ride El Stedoro, and it shall be written by the scribe, and enjoined upon my son, that when again you are a freeman, El Stedoro shall be yours, to be delivered to you at Alexandria whenever you send word. And now you have my leave to go, with this injunction. We have all been weakened by tears flowing from our eyes inward instead of outward, which are the most grievous, and sometimes an evil fate defeats the stoutest heart. Therefore I'll send my sais Hamyd with you as you depart, and he will mount guard over Izubahil until she reaches her abode, and remain to guard her through the night and until tomorrow at sundown, when she's to be brought here and bestowed upon me in marriage."
I knelt before him and touched my hands to my forehead, as was meet, and although she was a Daughter of Spears, Isabel did the same. He raised us up, and kissed us between the eyes, and we went our lonesome way.
CHAPTER 15
Sunlight Through Cloud
That night I dreamed of climbing the Stairway of the Jinns, seeking Isabel. It was a perilous and futile climb, and on the summit three men sat waiting for me, with pale, grave faces. They were Enoch Sutler, whom the Vindictive men called Sparrow, an Irishman whose real name I never knew but whom I called Kerry, and Holgar Blackburn. To my amazement, all had shed their chains, but I looked and found I still wore mine. They were going away, and I could come with them if I liked. I told them I could not go—I had a watch to keep—at which Sparrow and Kerry smiled strangely and disappeared. When I asked Holgar why he stayed, he showed me that a hole in his chest and another in his back had been stuffed with straw. Then a flock of crows came flying over us, saw us, and darted away in fright.
When I wakened, my face was wet with tears.
I rode hard until late afternoon and did not watch the sun. Just before sundown I donned what finery I had, including a bright head-cloth, and Timor decked Farishti with the silver-mounted bridle and saddle, the fabulous saddlecloth with its gold fringe, and the silver shoes that had adorned the Princess Izubahil's horse when she was banished from her father's caravan. We waited for her at her guardian's kraal; she came forth wearing the same raiment she had worn that night, with the addition of a brightly embroidered sash, fastened with manifold knots and bows, quite possibly a gift from the sheik. When she was up, showing only her profile to the crowd, I mounted, Timor fell in behind me, and we led our foundling to the sheik's tent, with the widow and a slave girl, mounted on donkeys, bringing up the rear.
Gorgeous of dress, Suliman received us in his mukaad. There was no ceremony; a feast and other acknowledgments and celebrations of the sheik's marriage were to occur tomorrow. He handed to Timor and Timor passed to me the bridal price—in this case a horsehair band with brass ends. By strict Bedouin law, he would have the right to demand its return if Isabel did not prove a virgin. The widow took Isabel's hand and laid it in Suliman's hand.
"La illaha ill' allah, tea Mohammedu rasul allah!" Suliman intoned. (There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.)
We retired, and as the night deepened, there was high suspense and ill-concealed anxiety among the people. That the gray-beard sheik had taken a young and beautiful bride thrilled them deeply, and it was impossible for the thought to occur to them that it was inappropriate; if the marriage was made good, they would take it as an omen of his long life and their own prosperity. But he was three score and five and was not as strong as most of the elders, and besides that, they feared the chance of accident during her excursions with me. If so, I would not be blamed. It would be only a doubly unhappy kismet falling to me that I could neither have her for my own nor see her the accepted wife of the sheik. Now and then they looked sharply into my face as though to guess my thoughts, but just as often they gazed at me with compassion or even awe.