by J. R. Rain
Through my tent opening came the sounds of money being exchanged for any number of items. At the opening, swirling dust still hovered in the air from when she had entered. The dust caught some of the harsh sunlight, forming phantasmagorical shapes that looked vaguely familiar.
“And why would my lady need to hire a lazy wretch like me?” I asked. As I spoke I lifted my sandled foot off the chest and sat back with my elbows on my knees.
“Emir Farid said some satisfactory things about you. In particular, that you have proven to be somewhat reliable.”
“Emir Farid has always greatly admired me.”
She studied me closely. Her almond-shaped eyes didn’t miss much. Her long fingers, I saw, were heavy with jewels.
“Aren’t you going to offer me a seat?” she asked.
I motioned to the area in front of the chest. The area was covered in sand and didn’t look much different than the desert outside my tent.
I really ought to clean this place, I thought.
“Never mind,” she said. “I’ll stand.”
I shrugged and grinned. She fanned her face and looked around my tent some more. She didn’t seem pleased, but she also looked desperate. Desperate usually won out.
She said, “Despite your many flaws, according to Emir Farid, he says that you are particularly adept at...finding things.”
“I’m also adept at losing things, my lady, but funny how no one seems to want to hire me for that.”
Outside, a few tents down, an animal shrieked, followed by sounds of splashing, and I knew a goat had been slaughtered. A dry, hot wind found its way into my tent, swirling the dirt at her feet, and lifting her robe around her ankles.
Nice ankles.
She caught me looking at them and leveled a withering stare at me. I grinned some more.
“You make a lot of jokes,” she said. “This could be a problem.”
I moved to sit back in the position she had found me in. “Then I wish you luck in your quest to find whatever it is that’s missing. May I suggest you take a look around our grand market place. Perhaps this thing of which you seek is under your very nose.” I closed my eyes and folded my hands over my chest.
“Are you always like this?” she demanded.
“Lying down? Often.”
She made a small, frustrated noise. “Is there anyone else in this godforsaken outpost who can help me?”
“There’s a shepherd who’s been known to be fairly adept at finding lost goats—although, come to think of it, he did lose one last week—”
“Enough,” she snapped. “I don’t have much time and you will have to do, although you are older than I had hoped.”
“My lady is full of compliments. I am not sure if I should blush or sleep.”
“Neither, old man. Come, there’s much to do.”
I heard her step towards the open flap of my tent. I still hadn’t opened my eyes. I lifted my hand and rested it on the corner of the chest. I hunkered deeper on the padding that doubled as my bed. She stopped at the entrance.
“Well?” she asked impatiently.
“Well what?”
“Aren’t you coming?”
I turned my head and looked at her. She was standing with her hands on her hips, silhouetted in the streaming sunlight. God, she was beautiful. And irritating.
I said, “Not until I know what you want me for and we have discussed my price.”
She turned and faced the bustling marketplace just outside my tent. She wanted to leave. She wanted to run. But she needed my help, that much was obvious. I waited, smiling contentedly to myself.
She said, “If I tell you on the trail, I will double your asking price.”
Double was good. I jumped to my feet and grabbed a satchel and my chest. The rest could stay.
At the tent entrance, I nodded at her. “You have yourself a deal.”
Chapter Two
I followed her out, blinking in the bright sunlight. Even my brief pause put her ahead of me, as she was already moving purposefully down the street. I refused to be seen scrambling after her like a hungry mongrel, so I lengthened my stride and slowly caught up.
“Some details remain,” I said as I drew within range.
“They can wait.”
“Such as my fee. I want half in advance.”
She didn’t hesitate. She simply flipped something at me. I caught it. It was a gold piece. That would do.
“Such as your name.”
“I am Enees-el-Jenees, of a prominent family, but I prefer to be incognito for now.”
“I will abbreviate it to Jewel,” I agreed. “And I of course am Niddala, as you surely know.” It was my name spelled backwards. No one seemed to have caught on, which probably indicated disinterest rather than stupidity. I had fallen far since my heyday.
“Niddala the Thief,” she agreed.
“Niddala the specialist in locating hidden objects.”
“Have it your way.”
“Now tell me the nature of the mission. What, precisely, am I expected to find?”
“My young son.”
This set me back. “Normally mothers know the whereabouts of their offspring.”
“He was stolen from me. It’s a devious story.”
“Have it your way,” I agreed.
She shot me a wrathful glance. “I will tell it when we are more private.” She approached a small parked carriage. It was closed, with a buckboard for the driver, and two fine horses were hitched to it. “Get in.”
“This is an intercity transport,” I protested. “Where are we going?”
“I hired it for the occasion. Get in.”
“Where are we going?” I repeated, putting my two feet down with audible impacts, signaling my refusal to go further on faith.
“Samarkand.” She stepped impatiently to the coach herself, evidently tired of my dawdling.
Oh, camel dung! I hated that city, and not just because of its reputation for killing innocent travelers. But it would not be expedient to go into that with her at the moment. “You didn’t say we were going so far away.”
“You didn’t ask. Now help me in, making a pretense of masculinity, and join me inside. Time is brief.”
I made an interior sigh and put a firm hand to her elbow to steady her as she took the steep step up. Her ascent showed one ankle right up to the calf, putting me in mind of certain luscious slave girls I had known in my better days. But did I really want to do this?
I paused outside. I rubbed my brass ring in a certain way. Immediately there was an invisible presence beside me. “I am here, master.” This was El Fadl, the ifrit of the ring, not one of the top tier of the djinn, but a serviceable aide and companion. He was especially useful when a target object was highly guarded. In fact I owed much of my reputation as a location specialist—okay, thief—to his dexterous supernatural touch.
“Faddy,” I murmured. “She wants me to go to Samarkand.”
“Samarkand! Don’t you know better, master? Give her back her gold piece.”
“I need the money. But you had better do due diligence on her, and let me know soon, just in case I do need to give it back.”
“I hear and obey, Nid,” he agreed, and faded.
“Well?” Jewel called imperiously from within.
“On my way,” I called back, and climbed reluctantly into the coach.
It was tight within, with barely room for two facing each other if our knees interspliced. Actually that aspect was interesting; her knees felt firm and smooth. Who knew what divine flesh they attached to? I had barely gotten seated when the coach jerked into motion. We were on our way.
“This is the situation,” Jewel said briskly. “I was wrongly accused of conspiracy by my wicked ex-husband, and imprisoned for two years until I was released.”
“Released?” I asked dubiously.
“I finally seduced my captors and killed them when they were distracted. I recovered some of my assets my husband hadn’t known about, re
ndering them into these rings, as only what is on my person is safe. Now I am anonymous, but mean to recover my innocent son. I will do what it takes to accomplish my purpose.”
Hence her interest in hiring a nonentity. Had she gone about her mission openly, her husband’s spies would have been alerted, and killed her, or at least imprisoned her again.
“You seduced and killed them,” I repeated.
“A man isn’t expecting a knife in the gut when he is in the throes of fulfillment. That is when he is most vulnerable.”
“Is that a warning to me not to get ideas?”
“No. Your reputation is for thieving, not raping. If you have a problem about going to Samarkand, would a seduction alleviate it?”
“It might,” I agreed.
“You were supposed to angrily deny it!”
“I am a thief and a liar,” I said seriously. “But I do not steal from or lie to those who hire me. You have bought my loyalty for the mission. But I do have reason to avoid Samarkand, and your favors might indeed mitigate my aversion. I am not demanding them, merely answering your question.”
She gazed intently at me a moment. “You may be more of a man than I took you for.”
“And you may be more of a woman.”
She was silent, perhaps digesting that.
“Master,” Fadl’s voice came in my ear.
I cocked my head slightly, indicating that I was listening.
“The woman is being shadowed by armed men. She is not as anonymous as she may choose to believe. My guess is that if she goes to Samarkand, she will be killed. There are horsemen lurking nearby, maybe awaiting their chance to catch the coach out of sight of the authorities. You have only a few minutes to avoid them.”
I nodded. “Slow the carriage,” I murmured.
“I hear and obey.” Fadl faded.
“What did you say?” Jewel asked.
“I was muttering,” I said. “Jewel, you are in danger. We must get out of this coach in a hurry.”
“I paid a valuable jewel for this ride!” she protested. “I am not going to walk to Samarkand!”
“Trust me.”
She stared at me, obviously not trusting me.
The coach swerved and slowed as Fadl made his distraction, perhaps spooking the horses with a ghostly smell.
“What is happening?” Jewel asked, alarmed.
I leaned forward and grabbed the driver’s shoulder. He looked back, startled. He was an older Arab, with sharp eyes.
“There’s danger ahead, friend. We must abandon this carriage.”
His eyes narrowed, but before he could answer, Jewel screeched behind me, “What the devil are you talking about?”
I ignored her. “Come,” I said to him, “we don’t have much time!”
He shook his head. “I see no danger—”
Faddy whispered in my ear, “Go now!”
The carriage had slowed enough. I tossed my special lockbox out the side of the wagon. It landed in the sand and rolled. Next, I grabbed Jewel’s arm. “Jump out with me. Now!” I plunged out, hauling her along with me.
We landed and rolled in the sand. At another time I would really have noticed the way her soft body jammed against mine, but at the moment I was trying to see that she suffered no injury.
The driver got control of the horses, who seemed no longer distracted, and the coach accelerated. The driver looked back, no doubt wondering where his passengers had disappeared to.
“Of all the ridiculous stunts!” she expostulated as we got back on our feet. She remained beautiful even when disheveled, maybe even more so, as more of her body showed. “You didn’t need to do this to get me alone! We were alone in the coach.”
“Get under cover,” I said tersely, hauling her to a nearby copse. “And be silent.”
She obeyed with ill grace. We settled in the copse, looking out at the coach that was now leaving us well behind.
Nearby, I saw my valuable travel chest, resting in some scraggly brush. For now, I let it be.
Four horsemen converged on the vehicle. In moments they cut the coachman down and left him bleeding in the sand. Then they ripped open the coach doorway. Even from the distance their curses were audible as they discovered it was empty.
“Now I trust you,” Jewel said.
Chapter Three
“What do we do?” asked Jewel.
I brought my fingers to my lips, shushing her. The soldiers were examining the coach carefully. They ignored the bleeding driver, heedless of his misery. Thus far, we had not been spotted, but it would only be a matter of time. After all, there was a nice deep trail leading through the sand and directly towards us. The copse itself was small and offered little opportunity for concealment.
One of the men shouted at the moaning driver, no doubt demanding to know where we had gone. The driver, to his credit, appeared not to answer, although it was hard to tell from this distance. Or perhaps he was dead. The guard shouted again and drew his sword. He pointed it down at the driver’s neck.
“You there, Faddy?” I asked, subvocalizing my words.
“Always, master.”
“You can quit calling me master.”
“Do you really want to get into this now, master?”
“No,” I said. “Cause a distraction. Quick. I do not want to see this driver perish.”
“But the driver did not heed your warning.”
“Just do it.”
“As you wish,” said Faddy, followed a moment later by a barley audible, “Master.”
“Did you say something?” asked Jewel.
“No,” I said. “Did you?”
“No, but I thought I heard something—never mind. They’re going to kill Jabeer. I can’t look.”
“Hurry!” I whispered to Faddy.
As the guard raised his curved scimitar, its polished steel catching some of the intense afternoon sun, there came a loud shout from the distant mountains. The shout, amazingly, sounded much like me. Faddy never ceased to amaze. Another shout followed, one that sounded much like Jewel. Both voices echoed over the desert.
One of the soldiers pointed, and immediately the driver was forgotten. In haste, the soldiers mounted their horses, and turned toward the distant voices. They disappeared a moment later, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust as they cut through the desert and far away from us.
Jewel was staring at me. She had heard the voices, too, of course. My voice and her own voice.
“What the devil is going on?” she asked.
“I’ll explain later,” I said, reaching down for her hand. She took mine and I hauled her to her feet. Perhaps a little too roughly. She stumbled forward and into me. I held her briefly, my hand at the small of her back. I gave her a lopsided grin. “Come,” I said. “Your driver needs our help.”
I retrieved my wooden lockbox—which had survived the tumble unscathed, as I knew it would—and we made our way back up the sandy slope and to the road.
Without shade, the sun was merciless. Heatwaves rose up from the hard-packed road, and I had long ago broken out in a pouring sweat, which soaked through my tunic. I glanced over at Jewel. There might have been a slight gleam of sweat on her upper lip.
In the far distance, I could mark the soldier’s path from the rising dust plumes. They were much too far away to see us. And besides, every now and then, I could hear Faddy leading them further and further away. Allah bless Faddy.
As we approached the coach, I could hear the driver’s faint moans, which seemed to agitate the two powerful, Arabian horses. I picked up my pace and was soon by the driver’s side. I set aside my chest and examined the man’s wounds. Not good. My best guess was that he would die within a day. But he would not die alone in this heat.
As I examined him, his dazed eyes searched my face. He opened his mouth to speak and blood spilled out. “How...how did you know?” he asked.
“Don’t talk now, old man. You’re going to need your strength.”
“I should have—�
�
I winked at him. “Shush, and yes you should have.”
I tore off a long stretch of his dust-covered robe and did my best to dress his wound. Blood quickly soaked through the bandage, but it would have to do.
“You seem to have all the answers,” Jewel said to me, as she knelt down to examine the wounded man. As she did so, she laid her hand tenderly on his tear-streaked cheek, and he responded with a weak smile. “You will be fine, Jabeer,” she said to him.
He actually laughed, and as he did, more blood dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. “You are a fine liar, my lady.”
She looked at me sharply, her almond-shaped eyes dark and challenging, and about as beautiful as anything I had ever seen. That thought, of course, pulled at my heartstrings, and I immediately felt guilty. “So what do we do now, Mr. Answer Man?” she asked.
I did not need Faddy to tell me the main road to Samarkand was unsafe. Her ex-husband, whoever he was, was surely a powerful man with many available resources. As we stood there in the hot sun, as the horses whinnied and pawed at the ground, and as a man lay dying at my feet, I knew what we had to do, and I didn’t like it.
“We need to get off the main road. The soldiers will be back, especially once they realize they have been duped.”
“Duped? What the devil are you talking about? Wait, let me guess. You’ll explain later.”
I winked. “Now you’re catching on,” I said.
I unhitched the horses and spent some time securing what little valuables we had; or, rather, securing what little valuables we absolutely needed. Jewel protested over the exclusion of most of her wardrobe and accessories, but I ignored her protests, which seemed to infuriate her. Jabeer himself was absolutely adamant that his own small satchel be included, which included an elaborate bedroll. I was about to ignore him, too, but he became so insistent that I grudgingly acquiesced and found a spot for his belongings.
Once I had the horses ready for travel, Jewel and I carefully heaved the wounded man onto a horse. Once on, I leaped up behind him and held him in place. If the added wight bothered the great Arabian horse, he did not show it. Jewel followed suit on her own mount, and I led the way back down the steep sandy slope.