“We are not heroic when we punish. We are heroic when we forgive. That’s what the Law says.”
Ewar swayed to the right and left and repeated, as if wailing a lament, “The Law, the Law; how inhumane are the commandments of the Law!”
4 The Truth
Ewar, however, did not yield. The following night he went off with Elelli to debate what constituted decisive evidence. While they sat together on a hill overlooking the buildings of the oasis from the north, he told his companion, “Yesterday I spoke with Yazzal about punishment. Today I want to ask your advice about deliverance. So won’t you open your heart to my words?”
“You find me all ears.”
“The fact is that I’ll tell you a secret that may serve as evidence.”
Elelli gazed at the area cluttered with mud-brick homes and flooded by the evening’s darkness while Ewar added, “The jenny master once saved my life.”
The intellect’s advocate, however, did not turn or evince any curiosity. He continued to stare out into the open, without displaying any interest. So his companion explained, “During one of my visits to the oasis I was stricken by smallpox. When I returned to the desert with the infection, the tribe scattered and left me all alone in a tent.”
The expression in Elelli’s eyes was indecipherable and so the narrator rushed on with his story: “My body was wasted, I had abandoned the desert, and insolent jinn were circling my head when a messenger stormed into the tent.”
He fell silent and gazed at the deserted area, which was flooded by the gloom of evening. He added even more precipitously, “The jenny master cared for me and brought me back to the desert with a herbal balm.”
He stopped. He was hyperventilating. The right word deserted his lips, but his companion did not come to his rescue. Silence reigned until he continued, “Do you get my drift?”
His companion did not reply, and so the narrator said, “Herbs are an ancient weapon in the jenny master’s hands.”
Noticing an inquisitive expression in Elelli’s eyes, Ewar explained, “A person who can use herbs as an antidote can use herbs to cause an epidemic. You can see that.”
The inquisitive look in his companion’s eyes was replaced by a disinterested one. He did not budge from his position, facing the wasteland.
Ewar said, “Don’t you see that what I say confirms what the fool said? Isn’t this evidence enough?”
Without forsaking his prayer, which was directed to the wasteland, Elelli responded coldly, “This does not constitute evidence.”
“Why not?”
“Evidence assumes witnesses, and there are no witnesses for your claims or for those of the fool.”
Ewar was silent, and then said despairingly, “You two seem to be acting as defense attorneys for the plague’s perpetrator, not as prosecutors.”
“What?”
“Anyone who listens to the diviner or to the sage would inevitably assert that.”
“You shouldn’t forget that we are speaking for the Law, not for ourselves.”
“I don’t believe the Law can authorize neglect of an affair that spreads ruin through the land.”
“To authorize a punishment, the Law requires only clear evidence.”
“But clear evidence may be elusive when the case concerns the work of a strategist.”
“If the evidence is elusive, then the affliction is the punishment.”
“What are you saying?”
“We shouldn’t punish an infectious person if we ascertain that the infection he brings is itself a secret punishment.”
“Shouldn’t we defend our people when annihilation threatens them?”
“Your defense is moot if the affliction is a punishment for an offense.”
“Offense?”
“Doesn’t the jenny master consider sedentary life to be an offense?”
The chief jumped to his feet and asked pointedly, “Is everything the jenny master thinks true?”
Elelli responded coldly, without once ceasing his spiritual journey through the empty spaces, “I don’t know. Only the spirit world knows. Time will reveal the truth.”
5 Injustice
Some days later, the ruler invited the nobles to a banquet. He slaughtered several head of livestock and provided meat and other foods for his guests but did not disclose the secret reason for these propitiatory sacrifices.
The elders gathered inside his home. As usual, the fool got the ball rolling at the assembly: “Today we have the right to saddle the mount.”
As usual, smiles were evident in their eyes, but the elders waited for the ruler — not his shadow — to speak. After a strained silence, the ruler was forced to take charge: “The time has come for us to defend ourselves.”
The nobles stealthily exchanged glances but waited patiently.
The ruler added, “If we wait any longer, the oasis will be destroyed and we will have endangered the lives of our citizens.”
Strained silence reigned once more. Then Ewar continued with all the authority of a ruler, “You entrusted me with sovereignty over the oasis one day. I will have betrayed your trust if I refrain from action any longer. What do you think?”
No one spoke. Ewar gestured to the diviner. Yazzal swayed as if in pain. Before speaking he sketched a design in the dirt. “The question is not what we think but what you want us to do.”
“What do herdsmen do to a mangy camel when it enters a herd?”
Edahi shouted loudly, “It’s chased away in the most vigorous fashion.”
Smiles were visible in most eyes. Elelli intervened: “We know what herdsmen do when a mangy camel comes to a herd but don’t know what desert elders do when a descent group’s tents are invaded by a plague’s carrier.”
He gave Ewar a telling look, which the ruler ignored. Instead he remarked, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“I meant to say that the wise men of the desert do not banish a plague-ridden individual under such circumstances. They abandon the camp site to him and flee with the tribe to another land.”
The two men exchanged a glance, a covert glance, a coded glance that not even the cunning could decipher. Ewar averted his eyes and then said with artificial coldness, “That’s what the base man is betting on.”
Edahi, however, again shouted, “Do you want us to give up without a fight?”
The diviner shot back, “Acceptance of a decree of the spirit world is not surrender.”
Amghar spoke for the first time: “What harm would it do us to shake off lethargy’s dust and to try living as nomads again?”
The fool burst out laughing. Inclining his skinny body toward the chief merchant he whispered loud enough for everyone to hear: “I’m afraid you’ll be the first to suffer, because you’ll have to be extremely clever to find customers for your wares in the wasteland.”
The chief merchant replied confidently: “The astute merchant will never lack for customers to purchase his merchandise. According to the customary law of merchants, doing business in an oasis or in the open countryside is equivalent, because our calculations are not based on the lay of the land but on the man who moves across the land.”
The warrior decided to speak as welclass="underline" “I am ready to serve our master. If you resolve to resort to force, my sword is yours to command.”
Elelli smiled disdainfully. After staring at Ewar for a long time he asked, “Does our master recall our discussion of the Law?”
When Ewar nodded his turbaned head in the affirmative, Elelli added, “If you reach some decision, I hope you will not decide on something contrary to the Law.”