The Mer- Lion

by Lee Arthur

  "Courtesy and custom left me no choice, but I decided to test him to see how highly he valued this breeding. I asked of him a nominal, truly paltry stud fee, but only to test him, as Allah be my witness. He refused. Before he left my camp, he swore that one way or another he would have a foal of my stud. Fearing he meant to steal my jewel, that night I tethered Jafar, for that is the stallion's royal name, with an iron chain around his hind fetlock. The chain I passed through the tent cloth and secured with a stake driven well into the ground beneath the felt upon which my wife and I sleep when traveling."

  Turbans bobbed up and down applauding his wisdom. . "That night, Ibrahim crept into my tent and insinuated his body between myself and my wife, first pressing gently against her and then against me to make room in the middle. He then slit the felt and freed the stake, crept out of the tent and led Jafar away with the chain draped over his haunches.

  Heads nodded in approbation of such true Berber daring, that midnight caper in the bed.

  The Sheikh disabused them: "But Ibrahim did not call out his triumph as is the practice of the desert. Neither did he wait for us to waken. Instead, like a jackal, he stoje away with my valuable stallion and made a mating with his mare. Too late my men rode into camp and opened his tent. Inspired by the performance of my virile stallion, he was riding his woman."

  "Ibrahim feared for his life, and well he might, for the life of a horse thief in the desert is forfeit. He begged my men to spare him, offering all his possessions if only they would let him live. They rightly took his wife, his bow, and the mare, and left him— miserable excuse for a man that he is—the mule to ride, woman-style. O Moulay, since I and my men acted with good conscience, we ask you to confirm us in the property taken to redeem the life of a common thief."

  The Moulay, hungry and bored, wasted no time on deliberation or consultation with court officials, not even Aisha. ''Both have defied custom, neither is worthy to be a horse breeder. Geld the stallion and dispatch his gonads to the Dar al Bey. As to the mare—deliver her by the sword of her unborn foal and make her barren. If she lives, return her to her owner, otherwise I affirm the Sheikh Hatira in his possession of the Spanish-made arquebus and of the wife. Case closed."

  With that the Moulay clapped his hands, and the huge doors of the Court of Justice swung open. Led by the Vizier of the Third Kitchen, dozens of servants staggered in under the weight of mammoth copper trays, and every man in the room—accusers and accused, friends and witnesses, hangers-on and courtiers—hastened to find a place at one of the trays.

  Since Aisha could not eat in public without unveiling, she excused herself and, accompanied by her bodyguard, left the room.The Moulay, of course, was served first—but only after a large blackamoor tasted each dish for poison—and washed each bite down with wine, the drink banned from the tongues of law-abiding Moslems.

  While the court ate, many speculated on what the Moulay would do with the sizable testicles of the stallion Jafar. Some said they would be spitted and roasted; others held out for boiling, noting that the resulting juices made a potent and invigorating drink. A few kept their thoughts to themselves, greatly aiding the appetite and digestion of their neighbors.

  The.meal ended with sherbet, then the giant trays were removed. The Moulay's indigestion—a direct result of overeating and drinking—he blamed on the strain of sitting in judgment. And the next few cases received severe if not vituperative resolution!

  The case of the dowry: One of a loving couple was sterile, the marriage voided, now the fathers squabbled over the return of the dowry. The Moulay ruled the dowry would become the property of the palace. Next case.

  The case of marital rights: A harem wife complained she was not getting her rightful turn with her much-bedded husband. He countered that she was past her prime and was lazy in bed. The Moulay ruled the man should sleep with no woman for an entire month, and then might return to his harem ways, only if he shared himself equally among all his wives. Next case.

  The case of the slaves: A wealthy landowner claimed a merchant had offered two of his slaves freedom, arid then had shipped them to a foreign port and resold them. He asked for two new slaves in return. The merchant denied all in the name of Allah, and asked the Moulay to take his life if he were lying. The Moulay did. Loud were the thanks of the landowner for the privilege of assigning two of his best servants to duty at the Bardo for life—his punishment for letting the two slaves escape in the first place. Next case.

  Consulting his list, the crier found every name crossed off. Audience Day was at an end. He was about to announce this when the doors to the left of the dais swung open and Aisha finally reentered the courtroom. She had been consulting with Ramlah. The two had concluded this was the chance they had waited for to make public and official the competition to which the Moulay had so far only privately agreed.

  Behind Aisha came but two of her mute bodyguards, both veiled, and dressed all in white. Ali had disappeared... to attend the slave auction. Aisha's eyes never left her hated father's. When but five paces from him, she stopped and prostrated herself. Motionless, she waited an almost interminable length of time until he squeaked permission for her to rise. She remained obsequiously kneeling.

  Her voice when she spoke was even more submissive. "O Moulay, I come before you as a humble supplicant. I am six years beyond the age of maturity, yet I have no husband, an injustice to you and our.country."

  The Moulay's eyes narrowed. What was she up to? Was she canceling the competition? Or—his heart pounded—was she about

  to accuse him of her ravishing? She wouldn't dare, he blustered to himself; knowing full well that this offspring of a barbaric Berber was capable of anything unless he stopped her. She and her mother had made a bargain, and they must live up to it. In desperation, he rose to his feet, and in a voice shrill with fury, he shrieked at her,

  "You shall have a husband all right. Chosen by competition in a public contest with you as the prize for the winner. The losers, I shall deal with..." His voice faded off while he considered how he had planned to deal with diem... with sword and mace, fire and cobra, lions and spears, ropes and water. And more. And more. He slavered in cruel anticipation. '

  Aisha could not believe her good fortune. Without coaxing or coaching, he was announcing the competition just as Ramlah had predicted. She prayed someday she could so well predict and control the man who became her husband. She had to bend her head to hide the triumph on her face, barely suppressing it in her voice, "Your wish, O Moulay, is my command. But a public contest?"

  He forgot that the idea was not his, that the preparations had already begun, that this was a potentially dangerous thing to do politically. Instead, he heard the quaver in her voice and gloried in the sight of her head bent low before him. Indeed, she would marry and with a man in no position to complain if he received slightiy used goods. Then the Moulay would be free to deal with that mother of hers. Too many years had that woman held him in thrall. Her punishment would be the slowest, most excruciating he could devise. He'd show her—and her daughter—that he was more than just a man. He was malik!

  "A public contest," he proclaimed pompously, grandiosely, "and one open to all. To Berber and Arab. To noble, to slave."

  The court, already agog, grew still more excited. If this were true, the Amira Aisha could become the bride of any one of them. The Sheikh Hatim listened, more eager than most. Gladly would he trade a four-legged stud to become stud to the Moulay's daughter. But the 'Moulay's next words gave him a chill. "Remember, you go to the winner. The losers come to me."

  While the courtiers had sat contentedly, sipping their tiny cups of scalding hot black coffee and second-guessing the Moulay's judgment, within the Souk al Berka de Wynter and the others squatted stoically and endured another day. First, the emptying of the slop bucket, then the replenishing of the water gourd, then the doling out of unleavened bread baked in coals until black and brick-hard. After that, nothing, until late afternoon and the second mea
l of the day, couscous, followed by a night of sleeping in turns.

  John the Rob, who had claimed unopposed the unwanted place before the door and next to the slop bucket, was first to hear the commotion down the hall. "Milords, gentlemen, and other folk," he announced cheerfully,"inethinks breakfast is being served."

  He was wrong. Instead, under close guard, the prisoners were let out of the cell and shoved into a double file, then led two by two down the passageway to the latrine, where their soiled loincloths were taken away. In the washroom each was doused with a pail of water. Sleeking their wet hair back as well as they could, they were led, still wet and still naked, into a shed. There, a group of black slavers awaited them. To one side lounged Eulj Ali, the captain of the ship, and a short, squat black man whose ornate robes and bejeweled curved dagger attested that he was no mere underling. Under his wary eye, each slave was led forward for the blacks to examine quickly and curiously. "Open your mouth, show me your teeth, move on... look up, look down, move on."

  Over the monotones of the examiners, de Wynter, waiting his turn, could hear the thick voice of the black: "Al-rabb, I warn you, I run a quality auction here, and my customers know it. They expect my merchandise to be clean and healthy and able to do a good day's work. So even though I sell yours on consignment, if any one is diseased or infirm, my men will reject him."

  "Fear not, jallab, these are healthy," Eulj Ali replied, working an ivory toothpick about within his mouth. "And look, there is the one I told you about. Is he not a beauty? Even wet, you can tell his hair is strange-colored."

  The auctioneer looked where Eulj Ali pointed, then gestured for a man to move de Wynter out of line. Instinctively, de Wynter shrugged aside me guard's rough hand and stayed put. The black smiled, showing big square white teeth.

  "A man of some spirit, as well." Two pairs of ironlike hands on wrist and bicep persuaded de Wynter that he wished to move out where the black could look him over.

  Slowly, the black studied the naked man held angrily immobile for his inspection. Like the professional merchant of flesh he was, he looked first for that sign of class, that elegance so few bodies have. This one had it, he decided. Then, he looked for how the parts of the physique blended together. The well-shaped head was held disdamfully high upon its strong, corded neck, flowing into broad shoulders above a wide, deep-spring chest that tapered swiftly into narrow waist and slim hips. The legs were long and lean and limber, with little hair and that so light it barely showed. That pleased him. His customers disliked body hair.

  Moving around behind the slave, he noted the strong back, still bearing a mark here and there of the oarmaster's whip. They would fade, he decided, tracing them with one finger, as de Wynter

  flinched at his touch. Approvingly, he ran his hands over the small, fiat buttocks mat clenched involuntarily as he separated them.

  Walking around to face the slave who stared expressionlessly over his head, the black reached up and gripped the chin, forcing that well-chiseled aristocratic face from side terside. Still watching the slave's face he let his free hand move down the breastbone to the flat belly and then still lower. At first, only by the hooding of those frosty blue eyes did de Wynter acknowledge what the man's hand was doing so slowly, so thoroughly.

  At last, the black stepped back, smiling. Still watching de Wynter, he addressed the two lounging onlookers and delivered his professional appraisal. "As you said, a beauty, a rawa indeed, even without the spice of the silvery hair. Only two faults do I find. The first, his height. Many of my more prosperous customers prefer such slaves to be small and especially weaker than themselves. The Moulay, for one, might look at this man, but he would not buy him. You, Eulj Ali, would be more his size."

  "And the other fault?"

  "A trifle and easily remedied with a slit of a knife. Like that you double his selling price. Of course, you would have to postpone the sale for awhile."

  Eulj Ali and the captain exchanged avaricious glances. "How long?"

  "He's young and healthy. He'd heal in two, three weeks or so."

  Eulj Ali, sucked on his toothpick considering, then regretfully shook his head. "No, we can't wait. Sell him as is."

  "But you will let me hold him out and sell him with the wenches. Selling this gem with that dross will weaken his price."

  Before Eulj Ali could speak, the captain answered. "All or none. Those were my orders, those are your orders. If someone wants the jamad ja'da bad enough, he'll pay for the rest and get himself a bargain the while. These are all good stock—young, strong, able. Not a real shirker in the bunch except maybe the monkey-faced one. For being new to the oar, they made excellent time. Yes, indeed. They'll sell, all right If your striker talks them" up properly."

  The black salaamed. "As you wish, al-rabb." Taking one last appraising glance at de Wynter, he signaled his guards to let the

  slave rejoin his fellows and become part of the herd. With his fellows, he was classified as indoor or outdoor material, had a number written in ink on his back, was given a fresh loincloth and moved out of this building and into a walkway open to the sky and lined with pens. Made of rough-hewn planks and heavy posts, there were at least a dozen of them, one after another, and not all of those de Wynter passed were full of men. De Wynter and the others were all herded into one pen, at the far end of the row. From between the planks they could look out onto a square of the city itself.

  Carlby answered the unspoken question: "The slave auction, my friends. I've seen one much the same, but larger, in Venice. A few words of advice: follow orders, no matter how silly or unpleasant. And for God's sake, don't fight them, not with a gesture, a look, anything—"

  "You, in there," hailed the captain from outside the pen. "No talking." To add force to his words, four of the guards climbed to the tops of the four corner posts and perched there, flicking the whips they carried.

  Again from without the pen, the captain spoke. "No sitting. No fighting. No shitting. The first one who dirties himself gets a flogging. The same with any who try to climb out. When your turn comes, move smartly up on the block and heed the striker's instructions."

  With that, the captain stalked off to find himself a good vantage point for the auction. The slaves in the pen had an excellent one. Without, the square was filling up with colorfully-robed men. The absence of women was noticeable, especially in the rumble of masculine voices. Even as the slaves were staring at the prospective buyers, the latter showed no eagerness to examine the slaver's wares.

  Soon, the gate swung open wide and the guard deftly hooked the nearest slave, Fionn, round the neck with a wooden crook. One tug and Fionn followed, leaving the pen. As de Wynter and the others crowded close and stared through the space between the planks, one man, with the permission of the guard, demonstrated for his son how to prod a man's calf to test for muscles... to pinch his belly to check for fat... to determine his age by opening the mouth and checking the teeth... to prove him man by pulling aside the loincloth and rolling the balls within one's hand.

  As the man did, so did the boy; Fionn, remembering Carlby's words, stood impassively while he was fingered. Finally, the father and the boy conferred, the latter evidently pestering the former to take some action. When questioned, the guard explained the conditions of sale. This provoked a heated discussion that ended with Fionn being returned to the pen, the prospective buyers turning away.

  Within the square, drums began to growl, and slaves spread thick carpets at the base of the block, where the view was best, for the more affluent buyers. As other slaves, serving coffee, passed among the crowd, the drums picked up their beat, finally sounding a tattoo. On cue, the sumptuously dressed black stepped out onto the block.

  "Sbah al star. May the peace of Allah be with you. Welcome on behalf of the house of Hassan ben Khairim, your servant. This market I declare officially open and under the protection of the Jalala al-Malik, the Moulay Hassan—the blessings of Allah be upon him.

  "Ah, my friends, I have suc
h wares to show you today, I know not where to start. The men are young and brawny and superbly muscled. The women—ahh, such women—small and curvy and suitably muscled where it counts, down here. Within the group we sell today we have learned men, warriors, laborers, scribes and savants, gardeners—the full selection you expect when you attend a market of men conducted by the house of Hassan ben Khairim, your servant.

  "But within this group, if you look close—and if you do not, I shall be sure to point them out—are such gems as I rarely have the honor to present to you. A giant of a man, blond, and muscled like none you've seen before. Two men's hands could not encompass the muscle in his arm. With a guard like that, any woman would be safe... except maybe from him. A flick of the knife solves that.

  "Then, there is another, a man with a face on him that would make any child laugh. His hands, how fast. They juggle, they gesture, they make things disappear. I know; I had two bejeweled daggers before I met him... and look at me now, lucky to have one, luckier still to be alive.

  "And then, there's the learned one who reads and writes Arabic like an imam, a man with a thousand tongues. The man who could be many things to his master: tallyman, majordomo, scribe, agent, whatever a man could wish. And this one is young enough and attractive enough that he could serve his master night and day.

  "Ah, but speaking of which, there is another. My friends, I tell you this and I speak true. If I had my way, I would hold him back and sell him with the wenches, but his owner refused. This slave's beauty is such it would make the women look bad and the owner—ah, if I could just name him—the owner has twenty times as many women here to sell as he has men. He fears financial disaster if he allows you to compare men and women. It is for this reason that I announce a departure from our usual practice. Today, the House of Hassan ben Khairim, your servant, does what no flesh market dares. It sells the women first. Muraqib, bring out the women."