The Waters Of Eternity Part 11

"Asim!"

Dabir cried out from just behind me, and a human arm clasped my waist, but then all was darkness, and I was under the chill water. Even still I could hear a distant boiling as the water poured onto the efreet.

I was angry with Dabir, for I knew then that it was he who held me. My sacrifice would be in vain, for we both would perish.

But Dabir's hands guided mine to his waist, about which I found a rope, and suddenly we were moving through the cold, wet darkness. I realized that he was somehow pulling us forward and wished I'd had more time to gather breath.

The water gushed in, pushing us with it, but still we did not reach our destination soon enough. When Dabir pulled me from the water I sat on my knees on a stair in the darkness, vomiting water back into the Tigris.

A beam of moonlight shone down through the fountain's open door to sketch the ladder and the wheel about which Dabir had affixed his rope.

"You should not have come back," I said, and coughed again. I was weak and my shoulder ached horribly.

The surprise in his voice touched me. "I would not abandon you, Asim," he said simply. I was blessed indeed to have such a friend.

I could not help coughing again, but moved away from the water with the sudden thought that the efreet might step forth. "You might have been killed."

"It was not written," he said, and though I could not see his face, I knew that he smiled.

When we emerged to consult with Mukhtar, he banished his nephew from the house that very night, amidst many curses. He had effusive words of praise for us. "How," he finished, "can I ever repay you?"

"When the time comes," Dabir answered, "give your daughter the amulet-it shall profit her as it has always profited your family. Her s.e.x matters not."

"Indeed?!" The merchant's voice rang with pleasure.

"Also, there is an honest, capable man I know who would be a fine manager for you. Ha.s.san ibn Musa is trustworthy. Hire him."

"It shall be as you say," Mukhtar said, though his voice betrayed doubt. "Does he have a head for numbers?"

"Nay, but your daughter does. Use your head, Mukhtar, and place your daughter in charge. This man shall front the business, and your daughter will run it."

Mukhtar nodded, slowly at first, then with growing admiration. "Verily, you have the wisdom of Suleiman!"

"Nay, Suleiman knew when to hold his tongue."

I did not guess his meaning then, and later asked what he had meant.

He frowned as a man does when tasting a sour melon. "I endangered us both when I told Amaharaziad that we did not have the amulet."

It was ever his way to be critical of his own abilities, despite much evidence to the contrary. As it happened, the pairing of Ha.s.san with Durrah worked so well that the business prospered and the two were happily married. When last I heard, they had opened up a second and even more prosperous store, in Baghdad itself.

The next morning we searched the cliffs across the river, recovering the monkey and several sinister books and scrolls and other belongings that interested Dabir overmuch. Also we took the head of the false efreet and the bra.s.s bottle from which the true efreet had come, and they sat for long years on the shelves of the receiving room.

Of the efreet and his master there was no sign, but I was still wary even as we climbed from the caves and into the sunlight. "Do you think the efreet will return for us?"

Dabir shielded his eyes and looked back at me. He gestured to the waters lapping against the cliff. "Creatures of fire do not mix well with water. It is perished or returned to Iblis."

"And took the Persian with him."

"Perhaps. Certainly, Amaharaziad was no fish."

"He might feed them well enough."

Dabir chuckled. "I have always heard it said that we Persians have delicate tastes. The fish may know the truth of the matter."

The Waters of Eternity.

I.

"I grieve with you, Governor," said Dabir, "but I am not well schooled in medicines. I cannot help."

Governor Ahmed said nothing. He had eyes only for his daughter. The sleeping girl's chest rose and fell quickly beneath a wealth of blankets. She did not stir as the governor brushed a hand tenderly over the dark tresses splayed across her pillow.

I bowed my head. With but fourteen years, the girl's candle would soon be snuffed. Her lips were faded and dry, her olive skin almost gray.

"Come." The governor stepped, a little unsteadily, from the bed. He had but lately risen from the sickbed himself, and from what I had seen might have left too soon. He glanced at the bearded hakim stationed in a chair beside the girl and walked for the scalloped exit arch.

I followed him and Dabir into the corridor and to a reception room hung with colorful rugs, each woven with swirling patterns.

The governor's bearded guard captain, a stern man with great black eyebrows, wide of shoulder, rose from his cushions and bowed formally.

The governor indicated the platter of food and wine with a shaking hand, then sank into a cushion across from the captain. We took cushions beside him as he formally asked us if we wished to partake of the refreshments. His voice was tired, soft. He had never been a large man, but he seemed shrunken almost to skin and bones, and the green turban atop his head looked a mighty weight that could overbalance his thin neck.

Dabir and I politely declined.

Captain Sarsour bent to pour a cup for the governor, then himself, letting fall a drop to the carpet. He was one of those who pa.r.s.ed holy words, which said not a drop of wine could be consumed. Thus he always spilled one before drinking as much as he wanted.

"I see the look in your eyes, friends," Governor Ahmed said, "but the hakim says I am mended. Lina is running out of time, though. Ari says the consumption is killing her and she has but days left."

Dabir and I bowed our heads; Lina had the same gentle spirit as her father and we had both grown fond of her over the years. I wondered then if the governor had summoned us merely to keep him company on a day of dark news.

He cleared his throat and faced us directly, like a man readying to present news that made him uncomfortable. "It sounds preposterous," he said slowly, "but were you a father whose child neared death, you would grasp each hope like a man in the desert stumbling after visions of water."

The governor paused and seemed to search for the words, or the will, to continue.

"Go on, Excellency," Dabir urged.

"Legends speak of the Waters of Eternity, Dabir. You have heard of them?"

"I have," my friend answered cautiously.

These waters were unknown to me, but I said nothing.

"We have a map," Captain Sarsour said suddenly.

The governor nodded. "I believe it to be the real thing."

Dabir scratched at his beard, as if brushing fingers near his mouth would ease the flow of words. "There are many maps to fabled places," he said at last. "And their makers sell them to profit from the greed of their buyers...or from their desperation."

"I told you, Governor," the captain cut in. "We should not have waited."

His tone was unduly sharp, and I considered the fellow more closely. Dabir and I had been away so often that I did not know him nearly so well as his predecessor, Tarif.

"Patience, Captain," the governor said wearily. "Dabir, I, too, was skeptical when my chronicler found the map, but it seems authentic. It dates back to the century before Muhammad, may peace be upon him. It is a scroll fragment, and one side speaks of a leader, a Felahr, who led his people to a life-prolonging fountain erected by the ancient peoples of Hattusa. Two things are clear: the scroll's writer thought the place real, and the path is difficult."

"Look at him, Governor." The captain jabbed a hand at Dabir. "He hesitates."

"You should strive to be more polite," I suggested sternly. Sarsour frowned at me.

A look from the governor closed the captain's lips. "You must excuse the captain," he told Dabir. "He has been commendably eager to aid Lina, but we have waited for your return. You and Asim have experience with such things."

"We have lost two days waiting for you," Sarsour continued. "The girl grows weaker every hour!"

Dabir and I had only just returned from an expedition we had undertaken for a huntress, one I have detailed elsewhere. We were road-weary and looking forward to the comforts of home.

"I want you to go after these waters," the governor said. "I do not order-I ask, as a friend. I want you to safeguard my daughter on the journey, and to help the captain overcome the challenges along the way."

"Lina?" Dabir spoke her name in disbelief. I shared his skepticism. If seeking these waters was foolish, taking the dying girl was mad.

"The travel will only weaken her," Dabir said.

"The journey will last almost a week," the governor told us, his voice so soft I had to strain to hear him. "And of course a week to return. That may be too long for Lina to wait. My hakim will give Lina potions to aid her, but they may drain her days. Haste is paramount."

The governor's grief made him crazed, and surely Dabir saw this. Yet who, looking into those pleading eyes, remembering the kindnesses he had shown us, remembering the laughter of Lina in the halls and courtyards as she chased puppies or b.a.l.l.s or begged for stories, could have answered in any way other than we did?

"Make the preparations," Dabir said. "We'll leave on the hour."

The governor brightened. "Thank you, my friends. May G.o.d go with you."

"Governor," Dabir said, "you realize that the waters aren't likely to be there. In which case-"

The mask fell away from the governor's eyes, and I saw the weariness and sorrow writ upon his soul. "I know."

II.

Clouds blanketed the sun as we rode the next few days, and it grew cold as we advanced into the mountains. Wind whipped down the heights, and though it was but early autumn we knew the chill of winter. The trail steepened and we pa.s.sed sheer drops of hundreds of feet. Then, in late afternoon of the third day, we reached a plateau several leagues across. High gra.s.s waved about our horses' hooves, a sea of yellow broken only by occasional islands of scrub, pine, or boulders. My spirits had brightened, for we had pa.s.sed two landmarks shown upon the map, a great mottled rock shaped like a goat skull, and a small oval lake shimmering like a mirror. Tranquil as the next leg of the journey looked to be, a strange foreboding filled me. I saw nothing as I searched the distance, but I felt certain we were watched from behind the boulders. Lions, perhaps, or bandits.

Yet the hours pa.s.sed, and nothing ventured close but birds. All was well after evening prayers. Even the weather was kinder, for the cold breeze lessened beneath a gray blanket of clouds. For all that he harbored some strange ill will toward Dabir and me, Sarsour seemed to know his business, and I found no flaw with the way he set up the camp or his sentinels. As with the preceding nights, I lay awake for a while, listening to the sounds of the insects and howls of distant wolves.

A scream woke me to nightmare. My hand found my sword as I rolled from my bedding. The watch soldier stared open-mouthed at a monster looming out of the starless night, the thing that even now doubly impaled poor old Ari on gigantic mandibles. The dying fire sketched a horse-high beast with a lobster's segmented carapace and two waving antennae. A sickly number of legs skittered beneath its sh.e.l.l, and its mouth, inside the circle of its great mandibles, dripped foam as it opened and closed spasmodically.

It smelled of the grave, but the sight of it alone was enough to take a man's breath.

Dabir roused even as I yelled to G.o.d to give me strength. Sarsour shouted for his soldiers to take up arms, but I paused only to draw my sword and slap a stunned soldier on the back. "To battle!"

He picked up his courage and followed.

The hakim's body shook this way and that as the monster insect turned to us. The mandibles opened and he dropped like a grain sack.

Many were the monster's legs, and they were swifter than I supposed. Its mandibles clacked like dancer's bracelets. I was close enough now to see the black eyes set in the horror of a face. I cried out and cut. It was a mighty stroke, and sheared the beast's mandible in half. So great was my blow that I lost balance and followed the direction of my swing. It was a beginner's error not to have better planted my feet, and I attribute it to my fatigue and the uneveness of the ground; moreover, that Allah had not written my death for that moment, for there came a hissing noise from behind me and then a man's scream that did not cease. I rolled to my feet to see the face and tunic of the soldier covered in smoking black ichor. He threw down his sword and reached for the pitted ruin of his face, then wailed all the more as he yanked his hands away.

The remaining mandible slashed through his neck and he fell silent.

Two of the soldiers plied their arrows against the thing, but that was folly, for the arrows stood out from the carapace but did little harm. Sarsour cursed his men. "Lances, you fools!" He picked up one and tossed it to one soldier, then charged forward with a lance of his own. He did not lack courage.

I readied to follow, but Dabir called to me. "Asim!"

I looked past the bulk of the monster and saw Dabir holding something aloft. His oil flask. "Get fire!"

He dashed past Lina, who crouched in her blankets, her eyes like white pearls, and strode determinedly for the monster.

I leapt to obey, though I did not like it. The caliph had charged me with protecting Dabir, yet what was I to do when Dabir sent me one way while marching to death the other?

Even as I raced to the fire I saw a smoking black spray hiss from the creature's mouth and burn through another soldier's tunic. He wailed only for a moment before falling. Sarsour and the remaining two stabbed the thing with their lances.

I s.n.a.t.c.hed a thicker stick from the pile of kindling, wrapped its end with someone's discarded turban cloth, then thrust it into the dancing flames. The fabric was ablaze in only a moment, and I looked back to Dabir.

Sarsour shouted for him to stay clear, but Dabir sidestepped one of the guards and the mandible I'd chopped, then hurled the contents of a cup he carried into the creature's face. The thing hissed its anger as the oil splattered.

The nearest soldier pulled Dabir back, then tackled him as a smoking stream spewed from the thing's orifice. It missed them by mere handspans. The other soldier danced away, but Sarsour jabbed the monster's mouth.

"Asim!" Dabir cried even as I dashed forward, the flames trailing from the burning brands in my hand. "Aim for its face!"

I was not so witless to have failed to divine his plan. I closed on the bug. I threw my improvised torch, and my aim was good. Flame licked up across its front. "Get back!" I shouted.

But Dabir did no such thing. As the creature turned its flaming head from us my friend ran forward to its side and splashed it yet again with oil. The fire streamed up along its carapace.

At Dabir's urging we hurried back from it. I scooped up Lina and we three watched as flame ate at its body. The creature tossed this way and that, as if trying to dislodge a rider. Twice more it sprayed forth ichor, but we all remained a safe distance off, and soon it slumped and was still. Flame consumed it for a while yet, and the smell was, if anything, more foul than when it had lived.

We relocated the camp, bearing the bodies of the fallen with us. Fadil, the stocky soldier who had saved Dabir, helped me recover the horses, for they'd had the good sense to flee. Upon our return I discovered Dabir and Sarsour confronting each other beside the crackling fire. The girl wept nearby while Fadir's comrade, the handsome Tarik, looked on curiously.

"...to be an expert on such things," Sarsour was saying.

"Do you suggest I should have foreseen the insect's coming?"