Ragnarson settled into his chair. "I never heard of any wife."
"It is one of the unhappy secrets of our lives. But it is true. Twenty-three years.... It seems an eternity. Most of that I waswife in name only. I did not see him for years at a time."
Ragnarson's skepticism was obvious. She responded by dropping her veil. It was an act which, in her culture, was considered incredibly daring. Women of Hammad al Nakir, once married, would rather have paraded nude than reveal their naked faces.
Ragnarson was impressed. He didn't have Derel throw her out.
"You do not recognize me still?"
"Should I? I never met a woman with a claim on Haroun."
"Time changes us. I forget that I'm no longer the child you met. She was fourteen. Life has not been easy. Always his men run-when they do not ride the desert to murder my father's men."
Ragnarson still didn't understand.
"But you must remember! The day the fat man brought me to your camp in Altea? When I was so much trouble you pulled up my skirts and paddled me in front of your men? And then Haroun came. He scared me so much I never said another word."
Why couldn't women just say things straight out? He tried to remember Mocker dragging a tart into some wartime camp....
"Gods! You're Yasmid? El Murid's daughter? Married to Haroun?" He strangled a laugh. "You think I'll swallow that?"
"So! You call me a liar? You had my skirts up. You saw." She bent and raised her skirts.
Ragnarson remembered the winestain birthmark shaped like a six-fingered baby hand.
"And this!" Angrily, she bared small, weary breasts. Over her heart lay the Harish tattoo worn by El Murid's chosen.
"All right. You're Yasmid."
Incredible. The daughter of El Murid, missing twenty years, appearing here. As Haroun's wife.
The marriage was the sort of thing Haroun would do to drive little knives into his enemy's heart. Why hadn't he ballyhooed it over half the continent?
"I did not expect you to be easily convinced. I made that my first task. I brought these." She showed him jewelry only Haroun could have given her and letters he couldn't read because they were in the script of Hammad al Nakir, but which bore Haroun's King Without a Throne seal.
"I believe you. So why're you here?" He decided to check with
Valther. Men of the desert didn't let their women roam free. Not without an uproar.
"My husband has disappeared "
"I know. I've been trying to get in touch."
That startled her. "He has sworn to kill my father."
"Not exactly the news of the century."
"No. Listen. Please. After he came back, after the war in your country, after he started to attack my father, but turned north against your enemies instead....
"That hurt him. He had it in his hands. Al Rhemish. But he let love for friends sway him. He surrended his dream to help you."
Haroun had come out of nowhere with thousands of horsemen to harry O Shing through the Savernake Gap and into the plains east of the Mountains of M'Hand. Bragi hadn't understood Haroun then, nor did he now. For friendship? Haroun would murder his mother for political expedience.
"So?"
"When he came home, a year later, he was so tired and old.... He didn't care. I made him promise he wouldn't hurt my father if my father didn't harm him."
"Ah! That's why he's been laying low. Been a long time since he's done anything. Just skirmishing to keep his people interested."
"Yes. That's my fault."
"He's changed his mind?"
"Yes. He told Beloul and Rahman to prepare the final offensive. He sent El Senoussi and El Mehduari to collect the wealth and fighters of the refugees in the coastal states. He ordered the deaths of my father's agents wherever they are found. It will be bloody."
"It's been that for years. It'll go on till Haroun or your father dies."
"Or longer. We have a son. Megelin! The boy is filled with hatred."
"I don't see what you're after. Or why Haroun made this about-face. He keeps his word."
"He thinks my father broke the armistice. My father's men here, Habibullah and Achmed, kidnapped your fat friend."
"Mocker. What's become of him? I sent him to see Haroun a year ago. He disappeared." He wouldn't say more till he heard her version.
"I'm not sure. Maybe Haroun is. The Marena Dimura told him what happened.
"Habibullah was one of my guards when Mocker kidnapped me. What they called kidnap. I wasn't very smart then. And he could talk, that fat man. I came willingly. I thought I could make peace. Anyway, your friend almost killed Habibullah that night. I suppose he's wanted revenge ever since."
"Derel," Ragnarson called. To Yasmid, "Could you face Habibullah now?"
"But why? Won't that make trouble? They have all forgotten me now. If they knew.... It would just make trouble."
"Sir?" Prataxis asked.
"See if Habibullah what's-it can come over."
"Now?"
"As soon as possible."
"I don't think...." But Prataxis went.
"I'm running that man half to death," Bragi muttered. "Wish Gjerdrum would get back." Prataxis was supposed to be arranging appointments for ambassadors and factors for the caravan companies.
"Pardon me," Ragnarson said. "You needn't reveal yourself. You think Habibullah had Mocker kidnapped because Mocker embarrassed your father? Because of it Haroun plans to start fighting again?"
"One operation. One planned for years. All or nothing. He thinks the tribes will rise to support him."
"Yes. So. But El Murid doesn't have Mocker. And Haroun knows it. The Marena Dimura down there are his spies."
"I'll tell you what I know. Some men killed Habibullah's men. They handed the fat man over to a man in black. Haroun believed the killers went into the north to hide."
"Wait. The man in black. Tell me about him."
"The Marena Dimura say he was tall and thin. He wore a mask."
"Mask?"
"A metal mask. Maybe gold. With jewels. Like those creatures on the walls of the temples in the jungle cities. The killers were afraid of him."
Ragnarson buried his face in his hands.
"Haroun has vanished. I fear he will try to murder my father so there'll be confusion when he invades Hammad al Nakir. I came here because I hoped you could do something."
"What?"
"Stop him."
"I don't understand."
"I love my father. He was a good father. He's a good man. He means no evil...."
"Nearly a million people died during the wars."
"My father didn't do that. He didn't want it. That was the fault of men like Nassef. His generals were brigands."
Ragnarson didn't contradict her. She was partly right. But her father had given the order to convert the west, and to slay anyone who didn't accept his faith.
"What could I do? I don't know where Haroun is. I've only seen him once in the last ten years."
She wept. "The Fates are cruel. Why do the men I love spend their lives trying to kill each other?
"I shouldn't have come. I should have known it was useless. All that planning, that trouble getting away, hiding from Haroun's men..... All for nothing."
"Maybe not. There's a possibility.....The old story of the enemy of my enemy."
"Excuse me?"
"There's a greater enemy. One your husband and your father could agree to be more dangerous than one another."
"You're being mysterious."
"I hate naming the name. I've seen the men in black before. I've fought them. They call themselves Tervola."