Mage's Blood

5

The Dutiful Daughter

Lakh

South of the deserts is a vast land filled with the greatest multitude of people. They call themselves Lakh, based upon their word ‘lak’, which means one hundred thousand, but in early days simply meant ‘many’. They are the Many … and many there are! There you will see all things: grace and vileness, love and hatred, piety and despotism. You will see wealth and splendour and the most abject of poverty: vivid, loud, filling your senses and haunting them for ever.

VIZIER DAMUKH, OF MIROBEZ, 634

Aruna Nagar, Baranasi, Northern Lakh,

on the continent of Antiopia

Rami 1381 (Septinon 927 in Yuros)

10 months until the Moontide

Ramita Ankesharan wore a red string bracelet threaded with spiky bullnut seeds about her left wrist, a betrothal cord from Kazim Makani. She sang softly to herself as she worked, roasting pinenuts for the stall. Her dark skin and flowing black hair were shrouded from the harsh sun by a fold of her pale yellow dupatta scarf, thin enough to look through and thick enough to hide her face. Her salwar smock was yellow too, though stained with ash from the fire. Her hands were already callused from years of manual labour and her bare feet hard as the stone of the marketplace. But her face was still soft, and had lost none of its girlishness. She was barely five foot when she stood, neither short nor tall by local standards. The song she sang was a love song, her mind on Kazim.

At the front of the stall her brother Jai was selling their wares: herbs, spices and roasted nuts, paan leaf and seed-cake Mother had baked that morning. They kept a bucket of lemon-scented water on the stall for the thirsty. Father’s trading provided sporadic profit, so they used the stall to generate the cash they needed for daily life. There were thousands of people here: buyers, sellers, thieves, workers, soldiers, even a cluster of Amteh women in bekira-shrouds, so they were never still. Jai kept up a constant patter, bargaining for every last seed: ‘Hello saheeb, would you like to look? Looking is free!’ Banter passed between the stalls. Ramita had a running argument going with a boy from the neighbouring stall about the smoke from her cooking-fire; the boy had already tried to douse it once.

People she knew passed constantly: girls, many with babies bundled in their arms; boys, ostensibly looking for work but really just lazing about. Everyone asked when she would marry. ‘Soon! Father promised he would begin to arrange it after Eyeed. Very soon!’ Father had promised. She was sixteen now and impatient. Kazim was so handsome and attentive: he filled her world. They stole kisses, but she longed for more.

She gazed skywards, praying for time to speed up, until a furtive movement caught her eye. ‘Hey!’ she shouted at a little rhesus monkey which had crept onto the corner of her mat. ‘Don’t you dare!’ She waved a fist and the cheeky thing bared its teeth, grabbed a handful of peanuts and was gone. It flashed through the market and launched itself onto the shoulders of an entertainer. ‘Hey, control your little thief!’ she yelled at the man, who was pulling the nuts from its paws. ‘Give those back!’ The man just smirked and filled his mouth.

‘Hey, sis, more chillies!’ called Jai, without looking back. A cloud of old women were all talking to him at once. Ramita hefted a sack and swung it onto the cart that served as their stall. Gods, it was so hot! At least they had some awning; the poor folk trying to sell from blankets on the ground looked more and more frazzled as the temperature rose.

‘Ramita,’ a voice called, and she looked up, her heart leaping. Kazim leant against the cart, a kalikiti bat in his hand. He flashed his white teeth, brilliant against the short beard and moustache which made him look so rakish and exciting.

She felt her skin go moist and her belly turn just to look at him. ‘Kazim.’ His eyes were dark, grey-black, beautiful as ebonies.

He hefted the bat. ‘I’m off to play this Lakh game you love so much. Can you spare your brother?’

Jai looked at her hopefully.

‘Well …’

‘You’ve finished the cooking,’ Jai burst out, ‘now it’s just serving up until we run out. It’s nearly lunchtime – Huriya will help you.’ Huriya was Kazim’s sister, her best friend. ‘Please, Sister—’

Kazim leant his support with a hopeful grin that won the day.

‘Oh, very well, go – go!’ She flapped her hands, her eyes filled with her beloved’s face. ‘Go, have your fun – men and their stupid games.’ But she was laughing as she said it.

Kazim reached out and touched her hand in gratitude, a stolen little intimacy that made her burn and turn liquid at once. The air sang. Then the two youths sauntered off.

‘Look at them go,’ laughed Huriya, sashaying out of the throng. ‘Don’t boys ever grow up? Even your father still likes to wave those silly bats around. Did you see, he’s gone off with Vikash Nooradin?’

Huriya was taller than Ramita, and more generously rounded. Some of the older boys treated her badly because she was foreign and Amteh and had a sick father, but Kazim looked after her fiercely, and no one stood up to him twice. Huriya’s body was hidden beneath her black bekira-shroud. ‘Why do we Amteh have to wear these stupid hot tents when you Omali woman can walk around half-naked and no one says anything?’ she complained, although today she had the hood pulled back, leaving her sensual face unmasked. She hugged Ramita quickly and then they both turned to face a wall of customers. It was time to get busy.

They worked steadily through the day, dozing when the sun was at its highest and the crowds thinned out, then setting to again as the sun dipped towards evening. The boys had still not returned to help pack up, so cursing them good-naturedly, they loaded up the cart with the remaining stock and stowed the cooking gear. The muddy ground was littered with waste, and every bare wall of the marketplace was wet with piss. Wads of chewed-out paan squelched beneath their toes as they pulled the cart through the streets, heading for home in the darkening, cooling streets. Children swarmed about, caught up in chasing games. An old camel plodded past, pulling a large cart while his driver slept on the back. Soldiers called out rude invitations and Huriya snapped back with feisty bravado. Guttering torches filled the alleys with smoke. Ramita calculated the day’s take in her mind: maybe sixty rupals – three times the normal at least. The last days before festivals were always good ones. Father would be delighted. Maybe he was off buying presents from Vikash? He always found little things in the market to amuse them, and no one could bargain like he could.

They pushed their way through the tide of people until they finally reached a small gate into a tiny yard filled with detritus. Father was a hoarder. Above them the Ankesharans’ narrow stone apartment towered, three storeys high with a cellar below, but barely ten feet wide, with neighbours on either side. Ispal’s father’s father had first rented and then bought it and gradually they had settled into it until they were part of the stone, repairing and renewing every season, their sweat and toil part of the mortar. When they married, she and Kazim would take over the second bedroom on the top level until they could complete another level for them alone. They would live their whole lives in this one house, as Ramita’s grandfather and father had. At the moment she shared the second room with Huriya, and the boys slept on the roof. There was no room for privacy.

The house was strange tonight. Normally her mother was in the kitchen with the children, gobbling down food and complaining while Ispal and Raz sat in the backyard smoking and drinking. But tonight none of the adults were visible and the children were running amok in the yard. The two young women looked curiously at each other. Ramita went into the kitchen and barked at the young ones, trying to restore order, while Huriya unpacked the cooking gear for cleaning. Then Huriya took over feeding the children while Ramita took a bucket down the alley to the water pump.

When she got back, some semblance of order had been restored. Huriya had charmed the girls into tidying up and the boys were studying the slates they had brought from school, speaking aloud the words etched on them, phrases from an Omali holy book about respect for parents.

Ha! Where are my parents anyway, she wondered. Upstairs together? And where is Raz? And Jai and Kazim? What is wrong with this place today? She clambered up the narrow stairs and knocked tentatively on the doors to her parent’s bedroom. ‘Father? Mother? Are you home?’ She thought she could hear her mother crying and she clutched her breast suddenly. ‘Mother? What is happening?’ Ispal opened the door and embraced her in his big soft arms. She looked up at him and at her mother, crying on the bed. ‘Father?’

Her father hugged her tight, and then held her at arm’s-length, his soft eyes uncertain and his lips moving, as if he were holding some silent argument with himself. She felt a sharp stab of real fear as he said quietly, ‘You had best come inside, daughter.’

She staggered from her parents’ bedroom an hour later and collapsed on her own bed, almost shrieking through her tears. It was the room she was to have shared with Kazim – but that would never be now. Huriya was shouting at Father, trying to make him change his mind, and neighbours, alarmed at the racket, were shouting at them all. Ispal had stopped trying to explain himself and just held her, wrapping her so tightly to himself she could barely breathe.

Why had Father done this to her? Hadn’t she been a good girl? Hadn’t Kazim been promised to her? Promised! And now, torn away – every dream that they shared with each other, staring at the moon and stars, snatched away, and for what? Didn’t they have all the money they could want? What more happiness could all that gold bring them? Even so much gold, more than she could even comprehend … Omali girls were supposed to give a dowry, not be purchased with one. And to be married to some old man – Father would not even say his name.

She slid off the bed and onto her knees, bombarding the gods with questions, alternately sobbing and whispering in a broken voice. The gods are in the silence, their guru always said. Where were they now? Is this just selfishness? a small part of her chided. Would she have felt this way if she’d been told that Huriya had been commanded to make a horrible marriage to make them all rich? Was she being a hypocrite? A dutiful daughter must go obediently into marriage, to bring her family advantage.

But she had dreamt of so much more – a love to last the ages. Father had promised!

Ramita heard Kazim and Jai come home well after dinner-time. She was lying on her pallet, ignoring Huriya’s soft snoring, trying to numb her mind. She was wishing she could puff on a hookah full of hashish until the world sank away for ever when she heard the clicking of the latch and the soft laughter.

Ispal was waiting for them. It didn’t take long for voices to be raised again. There was no mistaking Kazim when he was angry; he bellowed his fury, careless of whoever heard. She could picture his eyes blazing, his mouth shouting. He had always had a blazing temper, but normally calmed down quickly enough afterwards. She had never heard him like this, though – he had gone berserk, swearing and throwing things. Neighbouring men came around to see what the fuss was and ended up joining the row. She watched from the window as Kazim was thrown out into the alley and bundled away, fists still swinging. It was awful.

There was no sleep afterwards, just shocked, empty hours of disbelief. Just before dawn, there was a soft knock at the door and Guru Dev let himself in. Huriya slunk away, leaving her alone with the old wiseman, their family’s mentor and spiritual guide. Despite all the anger she felt inside, she went and knelt at his rough-skinned feet and out of respect heard what he had to say. Guru Dev spoke of sacrifice, of little drops of water that filled oceans, about being a part of the greater whole. The dutiful daughter obeys, he reminded her. He spoke of rewards in the hereafter, of the joy in Paradise at the good deeds of the least girl. He spoke of the labours of her parents and their parents, and how proud they would be looking down upon her as she made secure the futures of her family and elevated them to a place among the great.

‘And this old ferang, he cannot have long to live, eh – and then who knows what your life might hold? Imagine a few short years away and then returning, a rich widow, wrapped in silks. Imagine the joyous reunion.’

It sounded so reasonable in the old man’s soothing voice. It sounded like something she could do, perhaps even the right thing to do. But she had glimpsed Kazim’s stricken eyes, seen the blows of the neighbours bloodying his face. She’d heard his howls, mad with grief. She wondered where he was, alone in the cold darkness, his future shattered.

In the morning, she found she had fallen asleep at Guru Dev’s feet as the old man dozed in his chair. Huriya was staring at her. She gave a wan smile as their eyes met. Her belly rumbled and her bladder was demanding relief. Life demanded she go on. She carefully stood, took off the betrothal cord Kazim had given her and put it carefully away. Huriya took her hand silently and they crept downstairs to wash and face the new day.

Two days later, the festivities of Eyeed were still going strong. There were many Amteh-worshippers in northern Lakh, even here in Baranasi on the sacred river, and drums resounded throughout the city. Huriya had gone off to tend her father. Kazim hadn’t come home; no one had seen him for two days.

Before dawn the children had been scrubbed under the water pump in the alley. Tanuva had brought out her best soap, and Ramita performed the delicate task of washing in public without showing flesh with practised grace. She rinsed her hair then twisted out the water in bubbly streams. Mother and Auntie Pashinta traced henna patterns onto her feet, her hands and halfway up her arms before dressing her in her best saree. Then the whole family went to the holy Imuna River, to give blessings to the sun as it rose and set marigolds floating in the dark stream. All about them were other townsfolk doing dawn prayer. Jai had on his cleanest white kurta and his head was bound in a turban. He looked tired and was sullen in everything he did. He gave nothing but black looks to his father. Ramita wished he would relent: it couldn’t be helped, and he wasn’t making anything easier for her. It was hard enough getting through an hour without crying. Her brother’s anger just made it worse.

She touched the holy water of Imuna to her forehead and to her lips and to her breast. I can do this.

Sometime in the night, she had made peace with this fate she had been handed. It was going to be hard – she still couldn’t think of Kazim without crying – but she would endure. She would cast herself upon this pyre as the gods demanded. She would return to Kazim when the old man died. It would not be long. She could endure.

All of the neighbourhood was surreptitiously watching, she knew. Father had told no one the name of her suitor and gossip was flying. The Ankesharans had fought with the Makanis, everyone knew that, and now they had broken the betrothal that was to bind them for ever. Ramita’s new husband was coming at midday today, and every goodwife who didn’t have a view of their courtyard would be finding an excuse to be in the alleyway outside at the appointed hour. Speculation was rife, expressed loudly and in whispers. Had some prince from the mughal court seen Ramita at market and been entranced? Or was there another boy? Everyone had a theory, but only Ispal, Tanuva and Ramita knew, and the secret burned inside, though in truth the man’s name was nothing more to her than a distant legend, less than half-believed.

The noise rose to a babble outside as Jai admitted a soldier from the court of the Raja of Baranasi, who was wondering what this disturbance was. She watched her father placate him and slip him some money before he left. Ispal looked relieved to see him go. All the while the twisting sensation in her belly grew until she had to dash to the slops-drain and vomit up her breakfast. She could imagine what the neighbours made of that: ‘Ah, lost her virtue already, the little slut. I knew she would come to no good.’ It was all so unfair. Kazim, my prince, where are you? Take me away from all this!

Finally, just as the sun breached the buildings and beamed down upon the courtyard, booted feet tramped up the alley. The babble outside rose, then fell as the marching stopped outside the alleyway. Ispal rose ashen-faced to his feet and waved to Tanuva to marshal the children, while Jai wrestled the gate open. Ramita, the taste of bile stinging her throat, clung to her father’s arm, petrified.

A giant of a man strode through the gate. He was more than six foot and wide as a building, helmed and armoured beneath a blue cloak. His face was grim, scarred, but undeniably white. A ferang! Ramita felt a quiver of fear. She had never seen a white man before, and he looked … ugly. Strange. Brutish. He glared about the packed courtyard, took in the overlooking windows filled with watchers, and she could read displeasure on his foreign countenance: a bodyguard unhappy with security. He waved four more soldiers inside before turning back to admit Father’s friend Vikash Nooridan-saheeb. Then a cowled figure, very tall, but thin and stooped, came in.

Her hands shook as she clung to her father, who was sweating in waves. She stared. This is he? He was clad in a cream robe, his features hidden beneath the cowl. Cream and white were funerary colours, yet he wore them to a betrothal – was this some insult, or just ignorance? He used an ebony staff, metal-capped and patterned with burnished silver. Was it magical? Was he really a jadugara, a wizard? Was he really the Antonin Meiros of tales? She felt her fright magnify as the moments passed.

She could feel the eyes of all the neighbours on them as Ispal led her forth. Words were exchanged, beneath her hearing. If the old man said anything to her, she couldn’t make it out. A dry hand tugged down her veil and lifted her chin. She found herself looking up into the cowl, where a red gem pulsed like a demon’s single eye. She gave a small gasp, wanted to run, nearly fell, but Ispal’s hands gripped her arm tight and held her up.

For a few seconds, she had the most frightening sensation, as if her mind were a scroll and this old man was reading it. Her memories, her emotions, the things she cared about, the things she hated, all just patterns on paper, coldly appraised. She wanted desperately to run and hide, but some kind of terrified defiance kept her rooted to the spot.

The words were spoken into her mind, warm and approving. She almost screamed.

‘She has pleasing features,’ he said aloud in Lakh. His voice was withered by age. ‘Are you willing, girl?’

‘Achaa,’ she blurted. She could just make out a pallid face, wrinkled skin, a straggly white beard. Ghastly.

The cowl turned towards her father and she managed to breathe. ‘Very well, Master Ankesharan. She will do. Let the ceremony begin.’ He seemed to think it would all happen now.

Ispal shook his head. ‘Oh no, saheeb. There are preparations that must be made. My guru has taken the auspices. It will happen on the day before Holy Day.’

‘Out of the question,’ snapped the jadugara. ‘I must return to the north immediately.’

Ispal put on an expression of apologetic helplessness that Ramita recognised from many a marketplace duel of wits. She marvelled inwardly at his nerve. ‘Oh no, saheeb. The ceremony must happen as Guru Dev prescribes. It is tradition.’

Meiros turned that hollow cowl towards Vikash. ‘Is this so?’

Vikash waggled his head. ‘Oh yes, saheeb.’

Meiros snorted exasperatedly. ‘Oh yes, saheeb, oh no, saheeb,’ he muttered, then sighed heavily. ‘Very well. Master Vikash, make the arrangements. Everything must be cleared with Captain Klein, understood?’

‘Oh yes, saheeb.’

He snorted, looking about him. ‘Is there some other ritual that must be fulfilled here?’

Ispal looked flustered. He motioned Guru Dev forward and after some muttered debate, a small tray containing an image of Parvasi and a Siv-lingam was brought forth. Guru Dev touched his finger to a bowl of vermillion paste and dabbed a bindu mark on Ramita’s forehead, then halted in confusion before Meiros and his ruby-jewelled forehead. ‘Enough,’ came the sibilant voice. ‘I have no patience for this. I consider us betrothed. Do you also consider us so, girl?’

Ramita started, realising she was being addressed. ‘Achaa. I mean, yes sir,’ she mumbled, afraid to say otherwise.

‘We are done here, then?’ asked Meiros in a flat, impatient voice.

Ispal bowed. ‘Yes, master.’ His voice faltered. ‘Will you come in, take tea with us? We have cooked—’

‘I think not. Good day, Master Ankesharan.’

Then he was gone, as quickly as he had come. Behind him, the street filled with the curious, everyone sharing what they had seen, asking questions: Who was he? What did he look like? Did you see him? I did, he is a prince from Lokistan, like I told you! Well, I saw …

Ispal stood swaying for a moment, biting his lip. ‘Well, I dare say he must be used to better things,’ he told Tanuva, who stood aggrieved over her table, weighed down with good food that she, Ramita and Pashinta had laboured over for two days. ‘As you soon will be,’ he added in a whisper to Ramita.

Ramita trembled, angry that this old man had just marched in, careless of the feelings of her family, ignorant of their labours to prepare for him. Had they no sensitivity, these ferang? How arrogant! She glared at his father. ‘I found him rude,’ she told him bluntly as he winced, ‘rude and ignorant. I don’t like him.’ She stomped away, seeking her room and solitude.

Where are you, Kazim? Won’t you come to me, flying over the rooftops like Hanu-Monkey to rescue me from the evil demon-king? Where are you, Kazim? Why won’t you come to me?