The Love Slave Part 26

"Malik is not here!" Zaynab cried. "He is with your in-laws in Alcazaba Malina, Iniga."

"No," the girl said stubbornly. "I see him every day, Zaynab."

"Your mother gave Malik to the eunuch, Mustafa, when Ali Ha.s.san and his men entered the harem. Mustafa hid in a cabinet with your son, Iniga. When the bandits had gone, he took Malik to Ahmed's parents for safekeeping. He is not here!" Zaynab told her.

"I see him!" Iniga replied heatedly.

"Across the camp? But never closer?" Zaynab queried her.

Iniga nodded slowly.

"They have tricked you, Iniga, into doing their will," Zaynab explained to the girl. "Malik is safe, my friend. You never have to serve them again as they have been forcing you to do."

"Then I can die," Iniga said, the relief in her voice plain.

"You do not have to die!" Zaynab told her. "Karim will soon be here to rescue us. You will go home to your little one, Iniga."

Iniga shook her head. "No," she said. "I am defiled, Zaynab. My husband has been killed, and I have been used as a wh.o.r.e by strangers. My life is over. I am not fit to raise my son. No decent man will have me to wife. My son must have a family for protection and influence. I am an outcast among outcasts. There is nothing for me but the blessed release of death."

"Would you leave me to the mercy of Ali Ha.s.san?" Zaynab asked her. "You must help me fend him off until your brother comes. Do not leave me, Iniga. I have told you the truth. Do you not owe me a small loyalty, at least, for old times' sake?" Allah! She hadn't rescued Iniga to have her commit suicide. When Karim and Hasdai came, they would make the poor girl see reason.

"Very well," Iniga said. "I will remain with you for now, Zaynab. Had it not been for your kindness, I should still be the camp wh.o.r.e, unaware of the truth. To know that my child is safe is worth whatever I have had to endure at the hands of Ali Ha.s.san." She arose from the tub, and taking the small damp towel Zaynab had used, mopped herself off. Her hair hung wet about her frail shoulders.

The guardsman pushed through into the tent, a fresh caftan in hand, his eyes sweeping admiringly over Iniga. "Here, wench," he said.

"If you ever enter this tent again without my permission," Zaynab said harshly, "I shall have Ali Ha.s.san put your l.u.s.tful eyes out with hot coals. Do you understand me?"

The guardsman recoiled, nodded, and fled.

"How do you dare speak to them like that?" Iniga asked admiringly.

"You cannot show fear with creatures like these, Iniga," Zaynab told her patiently. "If you show your fear, they will devour you. With Ali Ha.s.san, I play the knowledgeable, superior courtesan. I scold him for his crudity and ignorance. But if I was with him and there were other men about, I should be the most biddable modest female Allah ever created. You see, Ali Ha.s.san wants to possess all the pleasures a Love Slave can offer him; but he cannot be embarra.s.sed before his peers, or his inferiors. Men are really quite simple, Iniga. What kind of a girl was your sister-in-law Hatiba that she gave herself to him? He is attractive enough except for his scar, but he seems to lack intellect."

"I do not know men except for the beasts they are," Iniga replied sadly, ignoring Zaynab's observations. "Ahmed was so good and gentle. All the men I knew before that day were. Now I know that those men were a rarity, that the majority of men are cruel, wicked beasts who care naught but for themselves. When ... if, my brother comes to find you, Zaynab, do not leave him again. He loves you. He has always loved you. He did not love that b.i.t.c.h, Hatiba. I curse her name! Had it not been for her, my family would not have been murdered, nor I made into a wh.o.r.e!" Then Iniga began to cry as she had not cried in all the days since her capture.

Zaynab comforted her as best she could, but knew she could say little to Iniga that would ease her pain or take away her sorrow. All she could do now was to keep Iniga safe from Ali Ha.s.san and his men. Karim and Hasdai would come in another day or two.

"Come," she said gently to Iniga. "Let us sleep."

In the morning they were brought food, and the tub was filled with warm water once again. Ali Ha.s.san came to watch Zaynab l.u.s.tfully as she bathed. When she stepped from the wooden tub, Iniga was there with a towel, but Ali Ha.s.san stepped forward and took the cloth from the shrinking girl.

"Let me," he said in his deep voice.

"Can you suppress your desires, Ali Ha.s.san?" she asked him as she had the day before. Her look was arch, but she was quick to note his black beard had been neatly barbered and was scented with almond oil.

His black eyes glittered beneath the bushy dark brows. "I am not a greedy lad, Zaynab," he said "You will have the proper time to prepare yourself for me, but in the meantime I wish to enjoy the antic.i.p.ation of possessing your lovely body." He mopped her back and shoulders. Then he moved the towel to her b.u.t.tocks and dried each one in turn, fondling the firm flesh. Then he pushed a finger between the twin moons. "Do you know how to take a man here?" he asked her.

She felt the invading digit pressing against her rose hole. "Of course I do," she said, her voice sounding impatient.

The finger was removed, and he dried her legs. Drawing her back against him, he dried her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, fondling them enthusiastically, then moved on to her torso; but when his hand strayed lower, she s.n.a.t.c.hed the towel from him, stepping away.

"I will freeze in this icy tent before you are done, Ali Ha.s.san," she snapped at him. "Iniga, fetch my caftan."

He laughed at her, and noted, "Your skin is the softest I have ever felt where the wind has not touched it. You did not lie to me. Just touching you arouses me. Look!" He drew his manhood from his trousers again.

Iniga winced, turning away, but Zaynab laughed suggestively. "That randy fellow has no idea of the pleasure I shall give him, Ali Ha.s.san. You must teach him to be more patient. Every time you look at me, he leaps eagerly up, ready for battle." Reaching out, she gave the fleshy peg a little tweak.

He roared with laughter. "Are you a woman who enjoys a wager, my beauty? I'll wager you a hundred gold dinars that I will have you shrieking with delight the first time I f.u.c.k you."

"Indeed?" she mocked him. "I will wager you five hundred gold dinars that I will make you howl with your pleasure the first time I make love to you, Ali Ha.s.san."

"I'll take your wager, my beauty," he said with a raffish grin. Then he left her.

Iniga, her eyes wide with her fear, asked, "What will happen if my brother does not come, Zaynab? What will happen?"

"Do not fear for me, Iniga, my friend. If Karim and Hasdai do not arrive by the third day, they will arrive the day after, by which time I shall be five hundred dinars richer," Zaynab said grimly.

Chapter 17.

Ali Ha.s.san came into Zaynab's tent on the morning of the third day. "Tonight," he said with a wide grin, "you are mine at last!"

"I regret I am not," Zaynab told him blandly. "My link with the moon broke last night and I am unclean."

His face grew black with his rage. "You lie!" he snarled.

"Iniga, do I lie?" Zaynab asked her friend.

"No, my lord, she does not lie," Iniga quavered. No matter what Zaynab told her, she could not help being afraid of Ali Ha.s.san.

"Do you lie too?" he demanded of her menacingly, his face in hers, and Iniga grew pale.

"N-No, my lord! N-No!" she sobbed, trembling. "It is the truth."

"Iniga, fetch me something to eat," Zaynab told her. Iniga gratefully fled the tent. "She is too terrified of you to lie, Ali Ha.s.san," Zaynab told him. "Can you not see it? Every time you glance her way she practically faints, the little coward." Zaynab laughed. "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but a woman's nature cannot be helped, now can it?" She moved so that she was standing directly in front of him. Sliding her arms about his neck, she nibbled on his lower lip. "Do you think men are the only ones who enjoy coupling, Ali Ha.s.san? I burn to have that tent pole of yours deep inside me." She smiled winningly into his eyes, her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s pus.h.i.+ng against his chest. "Another seven days, no more," she promised him, loosening her hold on him and moving away. "It will be even better for your enforced abstinence."

He groaned as if he were in pain; in truth, he was. Reaching out, he pulled her back against his body. "I am so hot for you, Zaynab," he admitted. He drew her hand down to his member.

"Ohhhhh," she trilled, knowing the exact response expected from her. "It's sooo big, Ali Ha.s.san. Bigger, I swear, than the first time I saw it." Zaynab wrapped her fingers about him and gently squeezed.

"Seven days?" he half moaned. "No sooner?" He couldn't believe what this woman's touch was doing to him. The mere thought of her made him hard as a rock. Her hand on him brought him close to spilling his seed.

She sighed, sounding genuinely regretful as she released her hold on him. "No sooner, I fear, Ali Ha.s.san," she told him. "I am filled with regret, but what can I do?"

He released her. "I will go raiding," he said. "I do not want to see you until the time is propitious. If I stay, I shall go mad with longing for you, my beautiful Zaynab." Then turning abruptly on his heel, he departed the tent. Several minutes later she heard the thunder of hooves as Ali Ha.s.san and his men rode out from the camp.

Zaynab smiled, well pleased with herself. Her female nature had indeed been most cooperative. Surely within the week Karim and Hasdai would find them. She was amazed that they had not already come. Whatever Iniga might believe, Zaynab knew that neither of the men would desert the Love Slave.

Iniga crept back into the tent with food for them. "They have gone," she said. "There are only old men, women, and children in the camp now." She handed Zaynab a bowl. "Why did they go?"

"Ali Ha.s.san did not feel he could control himself for the next seven days unless he was away from me," Zaynab said, laughing.

"You are so brave," Iniga said. "I wish I had been like you when they kidnapped me from Alcazaba Malina, but I was so afraid."

"You did what you did because you thought you were protecting your little son," Zaynab responded. "You were braver than I am, Iniga. You sacrificed yourself for your baby. I am merely playing a game with poor Ali Ha.s.san until your brother and the Nasi come. The caliph's Saqalibah are excellent soldiers. I cannot understand why they have been unable to find this encampment. They must have scouts looking. Surely the light of the fires should draw them at night."

"There are no open fires," Iniga said slowly, wondering why she had not realized it before.

"What?" Zaynab was astounded, but then she realized that she had spent practically all her time here in this little tent. She had only had a brief glimpse of the encampment when she arrived.

"Ali Ha.s.san knows fires could bring his enemies down on him. He allows no open fires. The tents all have braziers like this one for warmth. The cooking, however, is done in a single tent. Food is cooked for the entire camp there. It is done over braziers as well. There is one fire pit which is used only at night so the smoke cannot be seen. The tents are black, and the rocks in this canyon the same hue. Our shelters are set against them. We are easily overlooked, Zaynab."

"Then we must start a fire," her companion replied in practical tones.

"Zaynab, they will kill you!" Iniga said, frightened.

"They will not know how the fire started if we are clever," Zaynab said slowly, forming a plan. "It's no good doing it before Ali Ha.s.san gets back. We want to help the Nasi to capture that villain so he may be punished for the attack on your family. It will have to be the night he possesses the Love Slave for the very first time.

"While I am entertaining our friend, you will creep behind several of the tents, carrying hot coals with you to set those tents afire. It will take a few minutes for the tents to begin to burn. You will have time to come back here. Who will suspect you? They believe you frightened and completely in their power. Be careful, and you will not be seen in the darkness, Iniga.

"When the alarm is raised and Ali Ha.s.san rushes out to find ma.s.s confusion, I will set his tent afire by knocking over the brazier in his sleeping area Then I will run out after him screaming that our tent is also afire. He will think it is some sort of attack. The flames should draw the Nasi and the Saqalibah to the encampment, for if Allah favors us, the fires will be almost impossible to put out in time to prevent our location from being discovered," Zaynab concluded triumphantly.

"I do not know if I can help you, Zaynab," Iniga said honestly.

"You must help me," Zaynab told her. "I have no one else to rely upon, Iniga. Once the sun sets on this camp, everyone shelters in his own tent. There is no fellows.h.i.+p among the people here, because any sounds of revelry would carry in the night and draw attackers down upon them. You will be perfectly safe. I promise you that on that night in particular, Ali Ha.s.san will want perfect silence so his mastery of me-the cries he believes I will utter-will be heard by all his people. He is, I suspect, even now bragging to his men about his prowess and how I will howl with delight from his l.u.s.ty attentions."

"I am so afraid." Iniga wept, clutching herself to still her trembling.

"While Ali Ha.s.san is away, we will creep about the camp in the night together," Zaynab suggested, refusing to accept her friend's fears. "That way you will become familiar with what you must do and where you must go. You will see there is nothing to be afraid of, Iniga. My task is far more dangerous and onerous than yours. I must amuse that pig of a bandit long enough to give you the time you'll need. I will have to convince him of his great desirability, and that my l.u.s.t matches his. You certainly would not like to do that."

"Nay," Iniga admitted, "I would not. Ohh, Zaynab, I am so afraid for you! He is a cruel monster when he couples with a woman! He is enormous! Far bigger than Ahmed was. He hurt me dreadfully. Ahmed never did the things to me that Ali Ha.s.san did. He even forced himself into my fundament, laughing when I screamed. I am not brave enough, but I wish I could kill him. I hate him so!" Her pretty face was flushed.

"It's all right, Iniga," Zaynab comforted her friend, putting her arms about the terrified girl. "I was taught to accept a man in more ways than you can even imagine. Ali Ha.s.san cannot hurt me because I know exactly how to prevent him from doing me an injury. It is unlikely he will even get to breach me at all if you do your part."

"I will try," Iniga promised Zaynab earnestly. "I want my brother to find you. I want Karim to kill Ali Ha.s.san!"

"You will succeed," Zaynab told her seriously. "Both of our lives depend upon your succeeding, Iniga."

The encampment remained quiet for the next week. Each night, the two young women slipped out in the pitch-darkness of the night to move silently like wraiths about the camp until Iniga was completely familiar with it.

"Why can we not simply flee this place?" Iniga asked Zaynab one evening as they waited to begin their nightly foray.

"Can you find your way out of these mountains?" Zaynab asked her. "I tried to memorize the landscape as we came here from the city, but once in these hills, I realized that it all looked the same to me. There is no road or trail. We took many twists and turns. Even if we tried to escape, we could as easily run into Ali Ha.s.san as find the Nasi and your brother. And if we were fortunate enough to actually elude the bandits and show the Saqalibah the way back here, Ali Ha.s.san would be long gone.

"I want him punished, Iniga, for what happened to your family. The caliph wants him punished so others will not emulate him or his bad behavior. It is far better for us to remain here as bait. As long as Ali Ha.s.san believes he may possess my body, he will return to this camp," Zaynab concluded with a.s.surance.

The seven days pa.s.sed far too quickly for Iniga. With a cool demeanor that awed her, Zaynab went about the business of preparing for Ali Ha.s.san's return. Boldly, she marshaled the women of the encampment to clean their leader's large tent, which was a pigsty. She even had them wash all his garments in the nearby stream. She cajoled them into making him a new mattress, which they filled with fresh hay and sweet herbs.

"I do not need to be bitten by bedbugs,"she told Iniga.

She discovered a barrel maker amongst the old men. Giving him one of the small rings she wore, she wheedled him sweetly into making her a large wooden tub, which she had placed in Ali Ha.s.san's tent. Holding up another little gold ring with garnets on it, she offered to give it to the woman who could bring her matching soap and sweet oil. To Iniga's surprise, the Love Slave had a choice of fragrances from which to choose. Most of the women in camp had these items secreted away. She picked a heavy rose scent, knowing that it would appeal to her captor. Ali Ha.s.san was not, she had already noted, a subtle man.

There were several young boys left behind in the camp. "I want the largest kettle you can find on the boil when your master returns," she told them. "As soon as he enters the camp, begin bringing buckets of hot water to his tent to fill the tub. I will see you are well rewarded," she promised.

"Ali Ha.s.san is not known to be generous," one boy said daringly.

"He will be after he has spent a night with me," she said archly, and the boys laughed uproariously, poking at one another, their exchanged looks heavy with meaning.

She walked back into her own tent, where Iniga waited. "Now remember, this will be our only opportunity to help the Nasi to find us. Where is your container? Are the tongs with it?" she asked.

Iniga silently showed her the little bra.s.s dish they had made into a carrier for live coals. They had woven a handle for it from gra.s.s, reinforced with bits of wire they had taken from Iniga's earrings. She would use the tongs from the tent's brazier to transfer the coals into her basket, and remove the coals with them in order to start the fires. The previous night they had taken small piles of dried gra.s.s and set them partly beneath the rear flaps of the tents they meant to fire.

"Remember to begin on the far side of the encampment," Zaynab reminded her friend. "That way when the first fires break out, you'll be near enough to our tent to pop right back inside."

"I'm so afraid," Iniga said softly. "I pray I can do this for you, Zaynab. I want to be brave like you."

Zaynab grasped Iniga by her shoulders and stared hard into her face. "If you do not help me, Iniga, I will have to sacrifice myself to Ali Ha.s.san. I cannot hold him at bay any longer. Mind you, I do not fear coupling with this monster, but I should rather not do it if I can avoid it. Besides, unless we set the camp on fire, how can we guide your brother and the Nasi here to take their vengeance?

"Why are you still afraid, Iniga? What have you left to lose? Ali Ha.s.san has taken everything from you that you held dear. Your family. Your husband. Your little son. You tell me that all that is left for you is a quick death. I do not understand you, but I will not argue with you on this point. However, before you depart this life, I would think you would want revenge on the man who is responsible for destroying you. If I were in your place, I would!"

Iniga's soft blue eyes filled with tears. "You are hard," she whispered, then wept softly.

Zaynab shook her head, her grip on Iniga loosening. "I am not hard," she said quietly, "but I am strong. I have had to be. Your mother was strong too. Listen to me, Iniga, you are no less staunch than the lady Alimah was. While I doubt your mother ever spoke of it, I am certain the Vikings who took her and her sisters from their family farm used them well before they sold them as slaves. To survive such harsh treatment, your mother had to be strong. You can be, too, Iniga. You must be, else they all died in vain."

Iniga shuddered. She was more a delicate Arab princess than she was a Viking girl's daughter. When this was finally over, she knew that she would die. She wanted to die, for there was nothing left for her to live for; but Zaynab was correct. She had to be strong now, if only for a brief time, if they were to succeed in punis.h.i.+ng Ali Ha.s.san. He must not escape or be allowed to continue disrupting the caliph's peace. "I will do what I must," she said low. "I will not fail you, Zaynab. I swear it!"

Her words were scarcely out of her mouth when they heard the rumble of horses' hooves as Ali Ha.s.san and his men swept back into the encampment with a great shout.

"The sun is about to set," Zaynab said to Iniga. "The moon is already in the skies. When it disappears behind the hills, go out from here and set the tents afire. Then come back and wait. I will return to you, and we will hide until the Nasi comes."

"What of Ali Ha.s.san?" Iniga said.

"His pa.s.sion should be cooled by the disaster," Zaynab answered. "He will be too busy trying to put out the fires to bother with either of us." She patted Iniga encouragingly, and then hurried from their tent to the large tent beside them. Ali Ha.s.san was still swaggering about outside with his men, giving orders. The boys she had spoken with earlier were running in and out with buckets br.i.m.m.i.n.g with hot water, pouring them into the tub, which was just about filled. " 'Tis enough," she told them, waving them away. Then she began to pour the heavy rose fragrance into the water. The perfumed steam rose to fill the tent with its aromatic odor. The clump of boots outside alerted her, and she swung about as the bandit came into his tent.

"Welcome home, Ali Ha.s.san," Zaynab said with a smile. She hurried to take his long cloak from him, laying it aside.

"It smells like a rose garden in here," he said, sniffing, not certain if he approved.

"I am going to bathe you," she said firmly. "Any man out raiding for a week reeks of himself and his horse, Ali Ha.s.san. I'm not making love to you until you're as sweet as a flower."

He roared with laughter. His mood was very good suddenly. For a week he had been short-tempered and vicious with anyone in his vicinity. He could not get Zaynab from his mind, despite the fact that he had raped at least three women in that time to cool his ardor. It hadn't worked. He didn't want them. He wanted his Love Slave. So he had returned, determined to have her, to force her if he had to, but he wanted no more delays. And here she was waiting for hint. He was absolutely delighted.