With his tribe's encampment still a good half day's ride to the south, Ahmad made the reluctant decision to stop for a few hours' rest. He and Yusef had ridden through the night and well into the next morning. The exhausted horses had begun to stumble and, rather than risk serious injury to himself or Yusef from a fall, Ahmad reined his horse to an abrupt halt. Yusef galloped past, then, seeing Ahmad had not followed brought his horse around and trotted back to where Ahmad had dismounted.
"Trouble?" Yusef asked, lowering the end of his head shawl to reveal his bearded face.
Ahmad shook his head. "No trouble yet. The horses are tired. They should rest."
Yusef's eyes flicked toward the southern horizon. "We could be there by dusk."
"The horses will go lame or worse."
"The horses! The horses!" echoed Yusef in a mocking tone. "Are you more worried for your livestock than you are for your family?"
Ahmad shot him a cold look. "You may break your neck and kill your horse if you choose," he said calmly. "But you take your own horse, not one of the others. As for me, I will give the tribe's horses a few hours rest and, the gods be willing, arrive in camp before dawn with mine own self and my charges in tact. You may do as you will."
Yusef responded with an icy, narrow stare. Then he dismounted. "You mock me," he said angrily. "I was only thinking for the safety of your sister who is soon to be my wife."
"You said yourself that she is safe for the moment." Ahmad had already begun to unsaddle his horse. "Is she or isn't she?"
Yusef did not answer. Instead, he, too, began to unsaddle his horse, but he did it quickly with an angry, jerky motion that Ahmad watched warily from the corners of his eyes. Yusef dropped his intricately tooled leather saddle to the ground and sat back against it to watch as Ahmad set up the tethers for the eight horses. He pulled a water skin from the side of his saddle and took a long drink, his eyes never leaving Ahmad's back. To think,, Ahmad said to himself, feeling the stab of Yusef's stare between his shoulder blades like a dagger. This man is marrying my sister. The first time he beats her, he is a dead man.
When Ahmad turned back around, there was a conciliatory smile on Yusef's face. "On the way out yesterday morning, I passed the Baobabs' encampment," Yusef said casually. "You have a woman amongst the Baobab, don't you?"
Ahmad felt a sharp jolt of pain. When he looked again at Yusef, he saw that the smile had gone malicious. "I have no one amongst the Baobab," he answered quietly. "Only a few acquaintances."
"Oh, my mistake." Yusef stifled a belch and put the water skin aside, but he looked pleased.
Ahmad turned his face away and began to busy himself with removing the pack from the packhorse. What he had had with Qirfah of the Bush Lizard clan was not something he cared to discuss with Yusef. It had been a casual flirtation that had gone too far. It had ended badly, but not as badly as it might have if anyone other than her mother Jamilah had discovered it. After all, Qirfah had already been married to another man. According to the customs of Ahmad's tribe, had he known of the flirtations, Qirfah's husband would have had every right to kill her. Fortunately, the husband had never found out. Instead, Jamilah had sternly banished Ahmad from ever laying eyes on her daughter again. For Qirfah's protection, Ahmad had done as he was told, but he still dreamed of Qirfah at night, her shining black hair and the soft brown pools of her eyes. It pained him to know that she should be so close, yet so far out of his reach. Maybe that was the real reason why he had been sent away. His mother would have known that the Baobab would be camping there again this season. She and Jamilah were friends.
[ June 09, 2003: Message edited by: Ealasaid ]
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