Damiano - Raphael Part 12

"My little wife had a black nurse as a child. Now that she is... now that we are... we thought..."

Hakiim smiled to himself. Soon, if he kept his mouth shut, the fellow would reveal every fact and foible of his household. The Moor did not care, nor was he particularly disturbed by the idea of the ferocious Djoura as a baby's dry nurse.

The black's moods were various. Perhaps today she'd choose to exhibit cold pride instead of homicidal fury. Let the man look at her and decide; his family's safety was then his business.

They turned into a door in the blank white wall of a house: a fine, expensive house, rented by Hakiim for the express purpose of setting Djoura to the best advantage. They pa.s.sed through to the garden courtyard, where among oranges and tiny cypress the black woman sat, wearing robes of white cotton, brand-new.

In the corner sat the idiot eunuch, who had been commanded to sit still, and who obeyed like a dog.

The Spaniard was there, too, crouched un.o.btrusively in a corner where the welts on his face would not be visible. The welts had come from Djoura, as a result of the merchants' abortive efforts to feed the woman a sedative dose of kif.

But no such drug seemed necessary, for the black Berber gave the approaching party only the mostdemure of glances before lowering her shy head and lacing her hands together on her lap.

Hakiim approached. He tentatively extended one hand which was neither bit, clawed, nor spat at. He lifted the slaves chin for inspection. She smiled.

"This is Djoura," he said. A shade of question crept into his voice.

He had expected SOME trouble. He had been prepared with discipline, explanations of previous ill-treatment, promises of amendment, offers of help in training... He had set up this entire situation-house, clothing, sale by private treaty-as an attempt to gloss over Djoura's maniacal temper.

What was in the girl's head, to go suddenly all meek and winsome? (And didn't she look handsome, with her face not twisted into a snarl?) Hakiim had the sudden wish he'd stated a higher price.

The customer stepped forward. He gazed down at the woman from over his white-cased paunch.

"Girl," he p.r.o.nounced, "I am Ras.h.i.+d ben Ras.h.i.+d. I am looking for an attendant for my youngest wife and a dry nurse for the baby that is coming. Would you be a good one?"

Djoura batted her curly lashes and smiled at the ground. Then she smiled at the little veiled face that peeped around Ras.h.i.+d ben Ras.h.i.+d's bulk. She wiggled from one side of the seat to the other in an agony of shyness. "I think we would," she mumbled into her lap.

Ras.h.i.+d liked the girl's att.i.tude. He also liked her looks. And it occurred to him that the Prophet had ordained that a man might have four wives, while Ras.h.i.+d (comfortably situated as he was) had only two.

No need to think further about that now, however. Now there was the baby to consider: perhaps his first son. It was enough that this woman be strong and biddable. Later, when he was ready to brave his present bride's pique, and that of her family, of course...

But by what strange custom did the Nubian refer to her lowly self in the plural?

Ras.h.i.+d ben Ras.h.i.+d laughed tolerantly. "We, little one? Are you twins, perhaps?"

A giggle and a scuff of the ground with one sandaled foot. "No. My brother and I do not look alike."

Hakiim felt his ears p.r.i.c.k up. In fact, it seemed those organs were moving to the top of his head through amazement. He opened his mouth to contradict the girl-to as sure Ras.h.i.+d that there was no brother in the case-when Djoura crooked her finger and the blond eunuch trotted over.

Obedient, like a dog.

Ras.h.i.+d stared at Raphael, who returned a blue gaze free from either shyness or challenge. Then the large man seemed to puff out larger. He gave out heavy brays of laughter.

"Merchant of women, what is this?" he gasped, when he could. "There was no talk of a...a brother!"

Hakiim shook his head blankly. "I have no idea. The yellow-head is of course no relation at all to her, and..."

A voice in the corner spoke. "They go well together," said Perfecto. "In contrast. Two for the price of one."

Hakiim shot a look of fury at his partner. It was not customary for Perfecto to speak in the marketplace; he was not a convincing salesman and his native accent was strong. In dealing with customers of quality it was the Spaniard's business to keep his mouth shut.

And this... this bizarre attempt to get rid of the idiot by making him part of a package with Hakiim's prize discovery...

But Djoura took Raphael by the hand, and seeming to gather together slow reserves of courage, smiled into Ras.h.i.+d's glowering face.

"This is my brother Pinkie, master. He is not a man but- you know--a boy. He is a good worker and does everything I say."

Ras.h.i.+d found his annoyance melting in this girl's black velvet gaze. "I don't need a boy," he stated, masking confusion with gruffness.

Djoura seemed to wilt, and she gave a long sigh. "Without my brother," she said tremulously, "I must surely languish. Without Pinkie I think I will die."

Hearing no response, she continued in louder tones. "Without Pinkie I will throw myself into theocean, I guess. Without Pinkie I will throw..."

Hakiim cut her off, feeling her threats were about to extend from suicide to murder, "Don't be silly, Djoura. You've only just met the creature this week!"

Then he turned to Ras.h.i.+d. "The eunuch, when we first got him, was sick, and Djoura nursed him back to health. I guess they developed some attachment, but it's surely nothing that cannot be forgotten in a few days..."

While Hakiim thus held his customer's attention and Djoura watched them with a gambler's blank-faced intensity, the small person stepped out from behind her husband to look at Raphael.

Surrept.i.tiously, she pulled aside her veil.

She had thick hair hennaed auburn, and eyes like a doe deer. She was no more than fifteen, and she stared at the blond as though he were something wrought in gold.

Her name was Ama, and as she met Raphael's eyes she gave out a little gasp. She herself wasn't sure what it was she found there, whether pity, understanding, or sheer stainless beauty, but from that moment she felt-like Djoura-that without Raphael she would surely die.

Ras.h.i.+d was explaining very carefully to Hakiim that it was not that he could not afford either to buy or to keep a eunuch, but rather that his family was small enough that he had no need for a boy, when the small person tapped him on the elbow and stood on tiptoe to whisper something in his ear.

Ras.h.i.+d accepted the interruption with the exaggerated patience of a man who is humoring a pregnant wife. He listened to Ama's excited whispering.

"That much? You want her how much?"

"Both of them," chirped Ama. "I don't want her to be unhappy."

Ras.h.i.+d stole a glance toward Raphael, whose hand was in Djoura's, and who watched the interchange with disinterested attention. "Dearest swallow," the householder said, patting his wife on the head, "although your smallest word is law to me, here we must be reasonable. He will eat like a horse!"

"I will sell my jewelry," offered Ama, a little wildly. "My amber necklace, that my uncle gave me, and the gold chains. They are mine, and that will feed him-I mean them-for a long time. Oh, my husband, do buy them."

Hakiim knew enough to back away, lest his own persuasion, added to the woman's, drive his customer to rebellion. Instead the Moor shot a glance at his partner, a glance imbued with all the betrayed fury he felt toward Perfecto. But the expression the Spaniard returned him turned Hakiim's anger into something like fear.

In an effort to save face, Ras.h.i.+d turned on Raphael. "Well, boy," he demanded. "Why should I buy you? What are you good for?"

Hakiim began, "I'm sorry, sir, but the boy is unfortunately..."

But Djoura forestalled him. Squeezing Raphael's hand with desperation, she hissed, "Tell him, Pinkie.

Tell him what a good boy you are!"

Raphael lifted his eyes to Ras.h.i.+d. "I can play the lute," he said in faultless Arabic. "Either al ud or the lute of Europe. I can also make music with the Spanish chitarre, the harp, and most other stringed instruments. Winds I have not played so often, nor drums, but I believe I could manage them. I can teach others the mechanics of music. And I can sing.

"There are other useful skills I could learn, probably, but as of yet I haven't had the opportunity." The perfect fair brow lowered as Raphael considered the limitations of the flesh.

Ras.h.i.+d listened to this calmly stated catalogue of accomplishments with some surprise, for he had a.s.sumed that any creature which the slave merchants tried to lump into another sale was worthless. But the customer's feelings were nothing compared to those of Hakiim. Had his mule stood on its hind legs and begun the call to prayer, the Moor could not have been more dumbfounded than at hearing the eunuch talk.

Perfecto, too, was astonished, but his surprise was less pure than that of the Moor, and Raphael's sudden display of intelligence awoke all the Spaniard's nightmares."Well, then," Ras.h.i.+d said equably. "I have not been suffering for lack of a musician any more than for a harem attendant, but if he comes free and has the brain to learn what he is taught..."

He snapped his fingers in the air. "Bring the boy a lute."

Hakiim sat in red-faced silence as he listened to Raphael's playing. He reviewed in his mind all the stages of his acquaintance with the blond eunuch, and cursed himself for having at every moment mistaken illness and fear for idiocy.

Why had he never (after the first disgusting day) attempted to talk with the fellow, depending instead on Djoura's word that he was an untrainable idiot? It was always the Moor's wise habit to find the best and most salable skill a slave possessed and to emphasize it, and here he had been hearing the boy sing sweetly (Berber songs, among other unlikely musics) these two weeks and had a.s.sumed it was no more than parrot mime.

He shot a glance at Djoura, author of this deceit, but the black sat with her maidenly eyes on the ground, hands folded on her lap. Surely the woman had done it on purpose, but to what end? Had she fallen in love with the stinking creature, after was.h.i.+ng the gore and dung from him, and determined that they be sold together?

Well, why not-women did become attached to eunuchs, and evidently there was much more to the blond than had appeared. Hakiim began to wonder how much more; he had never yet seen the fellow undressed. His face was hairless enough, having less mustache than many women, but with certain blonds that meant nothing.

What an error, if they had been traveling with a buck goat among all his does, instead of a wether!

But remedial, of course. Granada was full of barber-surgeons. Hakiim determined to strip the fellow immediately after Djoura was sold off. His eyes roved from the blacks to the Spaniard's.

Perfecto, too, refused to meet Hakiim's gaze, staring instead at the eunuch with such an odd combination of enmity and fear that once more Hakiim wondered how the Spaniard had come by him.

Most males in the slave markets were battle captives whose friends or relatives had denied ransom.

These were chancy slaves, of course, since they might at any moment claim Islam, and all who took that yoke were supposedly free of all others. A born slave, castrated in childhood, was a different story. The Saqalibah, for instance...

But this one hadn't the manner of the Saqalibah.

If the boy was not an idiot (and perhaps not a eunuch), then possibly he was not a slave either. Not legally, at least. Hakiim thought furiously. He wanted no trouble, either with the law of Granada, nor with a kidnapped man's friends.

Raphael, meanwhile, was so happy he had forgotten both where and what he was. He bounced back and forth between the ancient, small-bowled liuto that had been bor-~ rowed for him, and the beautiful ud which belonged to the dusky, somewhat unclean fellow from the bazaar who stood now s.h.i.+fting from foot to foot at the courtyard door. He played a Spagnoletta on the European instrument, then lest the ud be jealous, he improvised upon it a long fantasy which s.h.i.+fted through three cla.s.sical Arabic scales. The lute spattered like rainfall. The.fretless ud sang like a man.

The small wife of Ras.h.i.+d ben Ras.h.i.+d cried delighted tears into her veil, while Djoura, equally transfixed by the art of Raphael, was filled with an inchoate pride.

Hakiim thought it time to interrupt. "Enough, Pinkie. You play very nicely, but the gentleman has already told us he has no use for a musician."

Ras.h.i.+d cleared his throat and turned his bulk toward the slender Moor. "That is not precisely what I said, merchant. I said if he is willing to do other work as well, and as he has been offered free, I would feel it only Allah's will that I give him a home."

Within moments of Raphael's picking up the ud, Hakiim had evolved an estimate of his value which was roughly three times the value of Djoura. With this in mind he replied, "Your charity does you great credit, ben Ras.h.i.+d, but there is no need. A good caretaker does not try to sell a horse to a man who wants a camel, nor a camel to a man whose need is for a goat."Ras.h.i.+d's deep hazel eyes had a hot glow in them, like those of a man who has been allowed to handle a ruby and whose l.u.s.t is thereby awakened. Hakiim knew that look well, for it was his goal to produce it in every customer with whom he dealt.

But though it seemed Ras.h.i.+d was willing to pay full asking price for Djoura, that would not half compensate Hakiim for throwing away the musician. Besides, there were some questions to be asked about that one. Hakiim turned to his partner quite calmly and scratched his left ear, a signal between them which had always meant "back out of this sale."

Perfecto scarcely looked at him. Instead the Spaniard rested his eyes on emptiness as he said quite formally, "We have offered the gentleman a sale and he has accepted."

Now they were bound. Hakiim's lips moved in a curse. "We have offered," indeed! HE had offered, and now Hakiim was out a large sum of money which might have done much to ease the last few weeks'

headaches and speed him on his homeward voyage.

While Hakiim sat with angry eyes averted from the company, regretting monies he had only contemplated having for the past five minutes, Ras.h.i.+d chuckled complacently and Ama danced her success.

She was a charming little thing and moved her feet most cleverly, despite the handicap of her condition, until she spun around to come face-to-face with the black slave she had just purchased, and whose existence she had completely forgotten.

There was something in the set of that face that called an end to the girl's capers. She backed slowly into the shadow of her husband once more, and peered instead with large eyes out at Raphael.

"I am your mistress. My name is Ama," said the very small and young person, and then with no pause she flipped around on her stool to present the back of her sleek head. "Do you like the way my new maid has done my hair?"

It was a complex arrangement of many little braids which had been then woven together in drooping swags. Gold coins hung at intervals, gleaming against the dark ma.s.s.

Raphael smiled at her, thinking that if Ama represented the circ.u.mstances of his life as it would be, it would be quite endurable. "I like the style," he answered. "It looks like this..." and his fingers echoed the complexity of Ama's hair on the strings of al ud.

"I'm not sure I do." Anna swivelled back, brisk as a sparrow on a branch. "She pulls tight-and the way she looks right AT me! She is a bold woman. Maybe Nubians are always bold women. My nurse wasn't, though. She was nice.

"The coins are her idea. I had to make holes in the middle of them, so I guess they can't be spent anymore. Djoura said copper, but gold is always better, don't you think?" Her eyes (not bird eyes, soft almond eyes) flitted briefly to Raphael.

"Your hair is even fairer than gold: not like copper at all. So strange! What did you say your name was?"

All this was said very rapidly, as Ama's quick, darting eye looked here, there, and everywhere around the mimosa trees and over the fish pool, resting at last on the musician she had come to bother.

His blue eyes (which Ama thought even stranger than his yellow hair) rose to hers. Had they not been so large, perfect, and deep blue, the little lady would probably not have given him time to answer her question; she rarely felt the need of answers.

But as it was, she felt quite suddenly tongue-tied as he spoke. "I don't think I told you. My name is Raphael."

Ama fitted the name in her mouth as though it could be tasted. "Raphael! Raphael! What a wonderful name. But Djoura called you something else-less wonderful. What was it?"

"Pinkie," Raphael admitted. "To Djoura I am Pinkie."

Ama fingered the red clay beads that bound the ends of her braids. Her sweet child's brow pulled down. "I don't like that. You should have a name as beautiful as you are. I will make her call you Raphael, I think." Then Ama went off into a moment's brown study."Or I will have my husband, Ras.h.i.+d ben Ras.h.i.+d, make her do it. He likes Djoura, I think. I don't think I do. Do you?"

Raphael opened his mouth to reply, but it was not necessary, for Ama went on, "It is funny, isn't it, that my hus band's name is Ras.h.i.+d ben Ras.h.i.+d, when his father's name is Pablo? He comes to visit us sometimes and then they speak Spanish. I can speak a little Spanish: Fatima's maid taught me. Until Ras.h.i.+d bought Djoura I didn't have a maid. Because I am the second wife. In fact, I was almost Fatima's maid, until I got-until we knew I was going to have a baby. That made almost ALL the difference.

Now, Fatima might as well be MY maid-but don't tell her I said so or she'll pull my hair for me!

"Sometimes I say bad things in Spanish to surprise the servants. Then I can pretend I didn't understand what I said. I do, of course. Don't tell anybody. Do you speak Spanish?"

In the time it took to draw the next lungful of air, Ama forgot what she had been saying. "Play for me."

Raphael had been attempting to play ever since Ama had joined him on the bench by the fish pool.

Now he was given at least a moment to start. The wooden instrument keened under his fingers. He sang, and the words went: My father is a sparrow in the leaves, in the tangle of leaves.

I hear him in the winter in the bare trees. He calls me.

But I-I have forgotten the language of flight.

By dint of great effort, Ama stayed quiet so far. Then she interrupted. "That sounds cla.s.sical. It doesn't rhyme. I know what it means, though, because I listen to songs a lot. When you say your father is a sparrow you mean you don't have a father, or that he does not admit to you. And when you say you don't remember how to fly, you mean you are a slave."

Raphael looked startled. His left eyebrow shot up, and it seemed he was about to contradict his young mistress. But instead he replied, "Everyone must take his own meaning from a song, or it would not be a song."

"But I'm glad you are a slave," continued Ama, after pausing to examine his answer and finally throwing it away as a bird will throw away a prize it finds inedible. "I'm especially glad you are a... a boy, and not a man. Or else I would not be able to sit here with you with my veil off and show you my hair. With men, everything is all very difficult, They are strange beasts-men, don't you think? All they think about is leaping on you like a bull on a cow-or I have never seen a bull and a cow, but I'm told it is the same. And so we have to stay hidden all our lives, lest we be disgraced.