Without any hesitation his companion replied, “Yes, certainly; we have the right.”
“Don’t we trespass against him by doing that?”
“We might trespass against ourselves, but not against him.”
“This is what I wanted to hear.”
“Explain!”
He looked at his companion, and their eyes met once more. The chief merchant said in a significant tone, “You truly trespassed against yourself the day you saved from abandonment people destined for it.”
“I’ve never regretted that.”
“It takes courage to do what you’ve done and even more courage to have no regrets about it, but you shouldn’t forget that the reward for a good deed is ingratitude.”
A mysterious smile gleamed in the strategist’s eyes. Then his companion added, “You weren’t content to do a good deed. You committed an even more serious offense by denying the man’s wife the amulet for offspring.”
“I’ve not been stingy with the water nymphs with my amulets, but I can’t bring dead bones back to life.”
“Do you mean. . ”
“If his wife did not become pregnant after I deposited my amulet in her, she must be barren. Yes, Tamanokalt is barren. Is that my fault?”
He was silent, and the stillness was widespread. From the west came the squawk of a crow.
PART III Section 1: Chaos
1 The Spirit World
Ewar kept his eyes on the fool and tried to decipher the look in his eyes whenever his companion lowered his veil to uncover his lips. Edahi seemed even more lost and miserable. Each time, however, he would raise the end of his veil again to hide the weak spot the Law identifies as a man’s lips. He glanced stealthily at the chief from time to time as if wanting to tell him a secret, only to reconsider and look far away.
This cat-and-mouse game continued for some time before the fool’s tongue launched a question: “But who is this Isan?”
He gazed miserably at the ruler, but Ewar’s eyes fled from his companion’s gaze and roamed into the distance.
“No one knows.”
The fool was not satisfied. The skeptical expression of his eyes was inescapable. Smiling mysteriously, he asked, “He’s been wandering the desert for ages, and no one knows?”
Ewar answered coldly, “No one has ever been able to name his father or mother.”
“I can’t believe that.”
“Why not? The desert people are superior to unknown creatures whose lineage no one can trace.”
“It’s said that in his heart lives the ancient foe whom the Master of the Orchard expelled for allying himself with the wretched Mandam. Is that true?”
The ruler smiled as his gaze wandered through the empty space outlined by palms to the south of the oasis. He replied, “That’s what the griots report.”
Silence reigned. Then the braying of a male or female donkey shook the stillness. Taking this for an evil omen, Ewar murmured some charms. The fool continued with his line of questioning: “But where do you suppose he learned the secrets of medicinal herbs?”
Ewar kept his gaze fixed on the empty space and then swept across it to the horizon. He transcended the horizons to the blue sky, which was innocent of any cloud. Its nudity — like the desert’s — was companionable and secretive. From this naked realm he pulled an answer to the fool’s question, and thus his companion heard the revelation of a prophecy: “Are the secrets of medicinal herbs hidden from one to whom the secrets of the spirit world are not?”
2 Temarit
The fool roamed around. He went to the fields and hid behind a fig tree to place the spring under surveillance. Some children were playing on the bank above the spring, pelting each other with clods of mud and calling each other names. Then they dashed away, shouting at one another. He waited in his hideout, but no one neared the spring; not the farmers, the water sprites, or the strategist with his alarming herbs. He listened to the gurgling of the fountainhead for a time and then jumped out of his bunker and darted off. He climbed some sword-type dunes and walked far into the sandy belt that encircled the oasis to the south. He wandered aimlessly for a time. He lay down for a while. Finally he returned and the palm groves concealed him. When he worked his way free of them, he found himself in the secluded area leading to the mountain slope with the tombs of the ancients scattered across it. He climbed the slope, trod on some graves, and rolled aside some skulls before he stopped at the ruined mausoleum in which the intruder had taken up residence. He listened carefully but heard nothing and shot off again. He passed by the mud-brick houses to the north and then turned right. He started down a road where recently some homes had been constructed. He stopped by a house that was splattered with lime. A symbol representing the goddess Tanit surmounted the top. He knocked on a door formed from sections of the trunk of a palm. The sign of the goddess appeared on it too, as a brass triangle. The door opened and the beauty appeared. She smiled and stepped aside, but the visitor did not enter. Without any preamble, he blurted out: “Some people have told me that the water nymphs have fallen in love with the master tactician.”
She laughed and pulled her wrap around her face without withdrawing from the doorway. She replied scornfully, as if mimicking the fool’s tone: “The water nymphs are merely women, and women only fall in love with men who pique their curiosity. Only strangers and geniuses pique their curiosity.”
He gazed at her for a long time, appearing even more squint-eyed. A line of saliva trailed down from his mouth, from which his veil had dropped. He stammered, as if to himself: “‘A woman’s jest is serious, and a woman’s serious statement is a jest.’ What they say is true!”
She laughed seductively once more and commented, “Add to that saying a second one: ‘A woman does not mock a man she loves.’”
When he looked questioningly at her, she added, “If a woman mocks a man she has loved, you know she’s fallen in love with someone else.”
The fool’s pain showed in his eyes. The fool’s saliva glistened. The fool’s tongue declared, “I can understand why your sisters rushed to the arms of that ignoble man — their desire for children won out — but I don’t understand why you did. . “
She interrupted him curtly, “The sisters did not rush to the arms of an ignoble man. The sisters rushed to the master tactician to receive amulets.”
“I know about those amulets.”
As she glared angrily at him, he added, “The sisters can hide the true nature of those alleged amulets from the oasis, from the people, from their spouses, but you will never succeed in hiding the truth about them from the fool.”
“When desire for a child overwhelms a woman, she will search for that child wherever it may be found. She will search for a child even in the arms of an ignoble man, because a childless woman is not a woman.”
He started to say something, but she slammed the heavy door, which was fashioned from planks cut from the trunk of a palm tree, in his face.
3 A Share of the Profits
Amghar, who was carrying his glad tidings in his right hand and a message in his left, came to Isan and stopped by the tomb’s entrance as evening fell. He paused to catch his breath and finally said, “In my home a cry of glad tidings has finally resounded.”
Isan invited him to sit down and asked casually, “Boy or girl?”
The chief merchant trumpeted: “A boy!”
Amghar, who was still panting, sat down, and the strategist asked, “Have I now fulfilled my part of the bargain?”