The Divining

     They made camp that evening and when Ulrika looked up at the moon and realized they had traveled yet farther east, away from her intended route, she said, "Where are you taking us?"

     When he did not reply, she added, "You did not have to kidnap me. You could have asked me."

     He surprised her by giving her a direct look with his black eyes, and she heard truthfulness in his voice as he said, "I am sorry for that. I was afraid Veeda was going to die. I did not want to waste a single moment getting help to her. In these mountains, we are intensely tribal. We guard our treasures and resources, we are suspicious of people from other tribes. Rivalry is ourway of life. I did not know where you came from. You could very well have said no to me. And then what would I have done?"

     "How long do you intend to keep me with you?"

     "You can leave in the morning. I will give you food and a weapon, and directions on how to get to the City of Ghosts."

     "What about you and Veeda?"

     "We will go eastward."

     Once again Iskander gathered twigs and leaves, and went through the motions of creating a fire, yet did not light it. He prayed over the kindling, and set the ivory horn next to it, chanting as he did so until he sat back on his heels and said, "I am searching for members of my tribe. I do not know where to go. I believe they might have fled to the east. You said you were seeking a man called the Magus, that he has answers. Do you think he might help me?"

     Ulrika gave thought to her situation and circumstance and realized that, although she did not fully trust a man who had kidnapped her, she could easily get lost in these mountains and that it might be wise to keep Iskander with her.

     "He lives in the City of Ghosts. Do you know where that is?"

     They were dining once again on raw fish, nuts, and berries, and Iskander chewed thoughtfully before answering. "Yes, I can take us there."

     Ulrika heaved a sigh of relief. Soon, now, she would be returning a favor to the prince who had helped her mother long ago. She would ask him to take her to Shalamandar where she would begin anew the intended path of her destiny, which she prayed would make her free to be with Sebastianus upon his return from China, free to love him and be with him for the rest of her life.

     They heard a sound in the night. Ulrika gave a start, but Iskander laid a hand on her arm, saying, "We are safe. The traps are intact. Those men will not reach us."

     She glanced over at Veeda, who slept peacefully. Her fever was gone and her wound was healing. But Iskander would not let her walk, he carried her. She was not heavy. At fourteen, Veeda had only just started filling into womanhood. Although one could see the budding breasts, her body was stillslim and boyish. She wore her luxuriant black hair long and loose, but she had explained to Ulrika that when she married, she would bind her hair up under a scarf, as was her tribe's custom, and keep it hidden thereafter, only to be seen by her husband. Veeda wore a curious costume: leggings and a garment Ulrika had never seen before—tight fitting from neck to waist, with long sleeves, and secured up the front by a long row of tiny round slivers of bone slipped into slits. Veeda called the garment a "jacket" and the closure was made of "buttons." It looked like men's attire, Ulrika thought, yet it fit her very well, and seemed practical for mountain living.

     Veeda expressed a lively curiosity about the world and asked Ulrika many questions. It was only when she slept, whimpering in slumber with tears streaming from her closed eyes, that Ulrika wondered what secret pain Veeda carried in her heart.

     "But what if they make it past the traps?" Ulrika asked now. "What will they do?"

     "They will kill all three of us. For that, for the danger I have placed you in, I am sorry. But it was necessary."

     "Who are these men who pursue you?" Ulrika asked, and this time Iskander gave her a direct response.

     "They are from another tribe, the enemies of my people. A feud began between our two tribes many generations ago. No one knows who or what started it, or which tribe, but revenge was exacted over an incident, and of course further retaliation was called for. Revenge is our way of life. But it is an endless cycle. When we exact revenge against that tribe, they must retaliate, creating a new reason for taking revenge upon us. And so we have fought for centuries.

     "But an unforgivable act was committed five years ago. Men from my tribe, I am ashamed to say, stepped over the boundaries by raping one of their women. They declared war upon us and vowed to eradicate us from the face of the earth. They came in the night. We did not stand a chance. I was in the woods standing guard against an enemy I never saw, and returned to find my village razed to the ground, my people slaughtered. When the other tribe heard that I was still alive, they came after me. That was five years ago, and I have been ru

     "And Veeda?"

     "I sought refuge in the village of a people whom I did not know. They were kind and took me in. I awoke to find a raid underway. My enemies had found my hiding place. They were burning the huts and slaughtering the villagers. When I saw this, I surrendered. I went outside and said, 'Here I am, take me.' They seized me. But when I saw that they were not satisfied with my capture, that they were going to continue to destroy the village as a punishment for giving me sanctuary, I broke free and I tried to fight them. But I was only one man against many. I ran to the house where I had been staying and found the family all dead. I heard a noise under the corpses and discovered Veeda. Her parents had shielded her with their own bodies to protect her. I escaped, taking Veeda with me. On a hilltop, we stopped and looked back and saw the burning huts, the dead, and we knew by the silence that the village had been wiped out."

     His dark eyes seemed to look inward as he released a ragged sigh and said, "I brought those men to that i

     "You were only trying to survive," Ulrika said softly, recalling a horrific battlefield in a Rhineland forest. "And you could not have known what they would do."

     "Now I search for remnants of my tribe, for I believe some escaped and might have fled to the east. This is why the Magus you seek interests me. Perhaps he can tell me if any of my people are still alive. Because, you see," he said, "it is insupportable for me to believe that I, Iskander, son of Sheikh Farhad Aswari, am the last of the noble and ancient Asghar tribe."

     Ulrika stared at him in disbelief. He was the prince she had been sent to help?

24

THEY HAD BEEN TREKKING through the mountains for days, and now they were drawing close to the City of Ghosts. It lay just on the other side of the mountain pass. Villagers and farmers along the way had confirmed that indeed the Magus dwelled in that forbidden city, and he was reported to be a very wise man.

     And so forward the threesome pressed, up and up into dense forests, where the air grew thin and cold, where people friendly and hostile guarded their small territories and looked in curiosity at the unlikely threesome: the young woman with honey-colored hair and sky-blue eyes who spoke Greek but also knew some passable Farsi; the dark-eyed young man in the animal skins of a mountain tribesman, who seemed neither husband nor brother to his two female companions, a moody young man who had little to say; and the coltish girl with a ready smile, wearing the leggings and tight jacket of people in the south—a beautiful, large-eyed girl whom several men tried to buy from Iskander.