Khaled pondered deeply, being uncertain what to do, and trying to find
out some action which could win for him what he wanted. Zehowah received
no answer to her question as to the number of enemies he had slain and
she did not ask again, for she thought that he was weary and wished to
rest in silence.
'What do you like best in the whole world?' he asked after a long time,
to see what she would say.
'I like you best,' she answered, smiling, while she still played with
his sword.
'That is very strange,' Khaled answered, musing. But the colour rose
darkly in his cheeks above his beard, for he was pleased now as he had
been displeased before.
'Why is it strange?' asked Zehowah. 'Are you not the palm tree in my
plain, and a tower of refuge for my people?'
'And will you dry up the well from which the tree draws life, and take
away the corner-stone of the tower's foundation?'
'You speak in fables,' said Zehowah, laughing.
'Yet you imagined the fable yourself, when you likened me to a palm and
to a tower. But I am no lover of allegories. The sword is my argument,
and my wit is in my arm. The wall by the tree is the wall of love, and
the chief foundation of the tower is the love of Zehowah. If you destroy
that, the tree will wither and the tower will fall.'
'Surely there was never such a man as you,' Zehowah answered, half
jesting but half in earnest. 'You are as one who has bought a white
mare; and though she is fleet, and good to look at, and obedient to his
voice and knee, yet he is discontented because she cannot speak to him,
and he would fain have her black instead of white, and if possible would
teach her to sing like a Persian nightingale.'
'Is it then not natural in a woman to love man? Have you heard no tales
of love from the story-tellers of the harem?'
'I have heard many such tales, but none of them were told of me,'
Zehowah replied. 'Will you drink again? Is the drink too sweet, or is it
not cool?'
She had risen from her seat and held the golden cup, bending down to
him, so that her face was near his. He laid his hand upon her shoulder.
'Hear me, Zehowah,' he said. 'I want but one thing in the world, and it
was for that I came out of the Red Desert to be your husband. And that
thing I will have, though the price be greater than rubies, or than
blood, or than life itself.'
'If it is mine, I freely give it to you. If it is not mine, take it by
force, or I will help you to take it by a stratagem, if I can. Am I not
your wife?'
She spoke thus, supposing from his face that he meant some treasure that
could be taken by strength or by wile, for she could not believe a man
could speak so seriously of a mere thought such as love.
'Neither my right hand nor your wit can give me this, but only your
heart, Zehowah,' he answered, still holding her and looking at her.
But now she did not laugh, for she saw that he was greatly in earnest.
'You are still talking of love,' she said. 'And you are not jesting. I
do not know what to answer you. Gladly will I say, I love you. Is that
all? What is it else? Are those the words?'
'I care little for the words. But I will have the reality, though it
cost your life and mine.'
'My life? Will you take my life, for the sake of a thought?'
'A thought!' he exclaimed. 'Do you call love a thought? I had not
believed a woman could be so cold as that.'
'If not a thought, what then? I have spoken the truth. If it were a
treasure, or anything that can be taken, you could take it, and I could
help you. But if the possibility of possessing it lie not in deeds, it
lies in thoughts, and is itself a thought. If you can teach me, I will
think what you will; but if you cannot teach me, who shall? And how will
it profit you to take my life or your own?'
'Is it possible that love is only a thought?' asked Khaled, speaking
rather to himself than to her.
'It must be,' she answered. 'The body is what it is in the eyes of
others, but the soul is what it thinks itself to be, happy or unhappy,
loving or not loving.'
'You are too subtle for me, Zehowah,' Khaled said. 'Yet I know that this
is not all true.'
For he knew that he possessed no soul, and yet he loved her. Moreover he
could think himself happy or unhappy.
'You are too subtle,' he repeated. 'I will take my sword again and I
will go out and fight, and pursue the enemy and waste their country, for
it is not so hard to cut through steel as to touch the heart of a woman
who does not love, and it is easier to tear down towers and strongholds
of stone with the naked hands than to build a temple upon the moving
sand of an empty heart.'
Khaled would have risen at once, but Zehowah took his hand and entreated
him to stay with her.
'Will you go out in the heat of the day, wounded and wearied?' she
asked. 'Surely you will take a fever and die before you have followed
the Shammars so far as two days' journey.'
'My wounds are slight, and I am not weary,' Khaled answered. 'When the
smith has heated the iron in the forge, does he wait until it is cold
before striking?'
'But think also of the soldiers, who have striven hard, and cannot thus
go out upon a great expedition without preparation as well as rest.'
'I will take those whom I can find. And if they will go with me, it is
well. But if not, I will go alone, and they and the rest will follow
after.'
'It is summer, too,' said Zehowah, keeping him back. 'Is this a time to
go out into the northern desert? Both men and beasts will perish by the
way.'
'Has not Allah bound every man's fate about his neck? And can a man cast
it from him?'
'I know not otherwise, but if heat and hunger and thirst do not kill the
men, they will certainly destroy the beasts, whose names are not
recorded by Asrael, and who have no destiny of their own.'
'You hinder me,' said Khaled. 'And yet you do not know how many of the
Shammar may be yet lurking within a day's march of the city, slaying
your people, burning their houses and destroying their harvest. Let me
go. Will you love me better if I stay?'
'You will be the better able to get the victory.'
'Will you love me better if I stay?'
'If you go now, you may fail in your purpose and perish as well. How
could I love you at all then?'
'It is the victory you love then--not me?'
'Could I love defeat? Nay, do not be angry with me. Stay here at least
until the evening. Think of the burning sun and the raging thirst and
the smarting of your wounds which have only been dressed this first
time. Think of the soldiers, too----'
'They can bear what I can bear. Was it not summer-time when the Prophet
went out against the Romans?'
'I do not know. Stay with me, Khaled.'
'I will come back when I have destroyed the Shammars.'
'And if the soldiers will not go with you, will you indeed go out
alone?'
'Yes. I will go alone. When they see that they will follow me. They are
not foxes. They are brave men.'
Khaled rose and girt his sword about him. Zehowah helped him, seeing
that she could not persuade him to stay.
'Farewell,' he said, shortly, and without so much as touching her hand
he turned and went out. She followed him to the door of the room and
stood watching as he went away.
'One of us two was to rule,' she said to herself, 'and it is he, for I
cannot move him. But what is this talk of love? Does he need love, who
is himself the master?'
She sighed and went back to the carpet on which they had been sitting.
Then she called in her women and bid them tell her all they had heard
about the fight in the morning; and they, thinking to please her,
extolled the deeds of Khaled and of the tens he had slain they made
hundreds, and of the thousands of the enemy's army, they made tens of
thousands, till the walls of Riad could not have contained the hosts of
which they spoke, and the dry sand of the desert could not have drunk
all the blood which had been shed.
Meanwhile Khaled went into the outer court of the palace, where many
soldiers were congregated together in the shade of the high wall, eating
camel's meat and blanket bread and drinking the water from the well.
They were all able-bodied and unhurt, for those who had been wounded
were at their houses, tended by their wives.
'Men of Riad!' cried Khaled, standing before them. 'We have fought a
good fight this morning and the power of our foes is broken. But all are
not yet destroyed, and it may be that there are many thousands still
lurking within a day's march of the city, slaying the people, burning
their houses and destroying their harvests. Let us go out and kill them
all before they are able to go back to their own country. Afterwards we
will pursue those who are already escaping, and we will lay all the
tribes of Shammar under tribute and bring back the women captive.'
Thereupon a division arose among the soldiers. Some were for going at
once with Khaled, but others said it was the hot season and no time for
war.
'It is indeed summer,' said Khaled. 'But if the Shammars were able to
come to Riad in the heat, the men of Riad are able to go to them. And I
at least will go at once, and those who wish to share the spoil will go
with me, but those who are satisfied to sit in the shade and eat camel's
meat will stay behind. In an hour's time I will ride out of the northern
gate.'
So saying, Khaled rode slowly down into the city towards the
market-place. The people were carrying away their own dead, and dragging
off the bodies of their enemies, with camels, by fours and fives tied
together to bury them in a great ditch without the walls. When Khaled
appeared, many of the men gathered round him, with cries of joy, for
they had supposed that some of his wounds were dangerous and that they
should not see him for many days.
'Wallah! He is with us again!' they shouted, jostling each other to get
near, and standing on tiptoe to see the good mare that had carried him
so well in the fight.
'Masallah! I am with you,' answered Khaled, 'and if you will go with me
we will send many more of the Shammars to eat thorns and thistles, as
many as dwell in Kasim and Tabal Shammar as far as Hail; and by the help
of Allah we will take the city of Hail itself and divide the spoil and
bring away the women captive; and when we have taken all that there is
we will lay the land under tribute and make it subject to Nejed. So let
those who will go with me arm themselves and take every man his horse or
his camel, and dates and barley and water-skins, and in an hour's time
we will ride out. For Allah will certainly give us the victory.'
'Let us bury the dead to-day and to-morrow we will go,' said many of
those nearest to him.
'Are there no old men and boys in Riad to bind the sheaves you have
mown?' asked Khaled. 'And are there no women to mourn over the dead of
your kindred who have fallen in a good fight? And as for to-morrow, it
is yet in Allah's hand. But to-day we have already with us. However, if
you will not go with me, I will go alone.'
The men were pleased with Khaled's speech, and indeed the greater part
of the dead were buried by this time, for all the people had made haste
to the work, fearing lest the bodies should bring a pestilence among
them, since it was summer-time and very hot. Then all those who were
unhurt and could bear arms, went and washed themselves, and took their
weapons and food, as Khaled had directed them. Before the call to
afternoon prayers the whole host went out of the northern gate.
Then Khaled accomplished all that he had spoken of, and much more, for
he drove the scattered force of the enemy before him, overtaking all at
last and slaying all whom he overtook as far as Zulfah which is by the
narrow end of the Nefud. Here he rested a short time, and then quickly
crossing the sand, he entered the country called Kasim which is subject
to the Shammars. Here he was told by a woman who had been taken that the
Shammars were coming with a new army against him out of Hail. He
therefore hid his host in a pass of the hills just above the plain, and
sent down a few Bedouins to encamp at the foot of the mountains, bidding
them call themselves Shammars and make a show of being friendly to the
enemy. So when the army of the Shammars reached the foot of the hills,
they saw the tents and only one or two camels, and Khaled's Bedouins
came out and welcomed them, and told them that Khaled was still crossing
the Nefud, and that if they made haste through the hills they might come
upon him unawares and at an advantage as he began to ascend. Thereupon
the enemy rejoiced and entered the pass in haste, after filling their
water-skins.
When they were in the midst of the hills, Khaled and his army sprang up
from the ambush and fell upon them, and utterly destroyed them, taking
all their horses and camels and arms; after which he went down into the
plain and laid waste the country about Hail. He took the city as the
Shammars had taken Riad. For he himself got upon the wall at night, with
the strongest and the bravest of his followers, and slew the guards and
opened the gate just before the dawn. But there was no Khaled in Hail to
rally the soldiers and give them heart to turn and make a stand in the
streets.
Khaled then entered the palace and took the Sultan of Shammar alive, not
suffering him to be hurt, for he wished to bring him to Riad. This
Sultan was a man of middle age, having only one eye, and also otherwise
ill-favoured, besides being cowardly and fat. So Khaled ordered that he
should be put into a litter, and the litter into a cage, and the cage
slung between two camels. But he commanded that the women of the harem
should be well treated and brought before him, that he might see them,
intending to bring back the most beautiful of them as presents to his
father-in-law.
'Surely,' said the men who were with him, 'you will keep the fairest for
yourself.'
But Khaled turned angrily upon them.
'Have I not lately married the most beautiful woman in the world?' he
asked. 'I tell you it is for her sake that I have destroyed the
Shammars. But the Sultan shall have the best of these women, and
afterwards the rest of them will be divided amongst you by lot.'
When the women heard that they were to be distributed among the men of
Nejed they at first made a pretence of howling and beating their
breasts, but they rejoiced secretly and soon began to laugh and talk
among themselves, pointing out to each other the strongest and most
richly dressed of Khaled's followers, as though choosing husbands among
them. But one of them neither wept nor spoke to her companions, but
stood silently watching Khaled, and when he sat down upon a carpet in
the chief kahwah of the house, she brought him drink in a goblet set
with pearls from Katar, and sat down at his feet as though she had been
his wife. But he took little heed of her at first, for he was busy with
grave matters.
The other women, seeing what she did, thought that she was acting wisely
in the hope of gaining Khaled's favour, seeing that he was the chief of
their enemies, so they, too, came near, and brought water for his hands,
and perfumes, and sweetmeats, thinking to outdo her. But she pushed them
away, taking what they brought for him, and offering it herself.
'Are you better than we?' the women said angrily. 'Has our lord chosen
you for himself, that you will not let us come near him?'
Then Khaled noticed her and began to wonder at her attention and zeal.
'What is your name?' he asked. But she did not speak. 'Who is she?' he
inquired of the other women.
'She is an unbeliever,' they answered contemptuously. 'And she is proud,
for she trusts in her white skin and her blue eyes, and her hair which
is red without henna. She thinks she is better than we. Command us to
uncover our faces, that you may see and judge between us.'
'Let it be so. Let us see who is the fairest,' said Khaled, and he
laughed.
Then the woman who sat at his feet threw aside her veil, and all the
others did the same. Khaled saw that the one was certainly more
beautiful than the rest, for her skin was as white as milk, and her eyes
like the sea of Oman when it is blue in winter. She had also long hair,
plaited in three tresses which came down to her feet, red as the locusts
when the sun shines upon them at evening, and not dyed.
'There is a bay mare in a stable of black ones,' Khaled said. 'What is
the name of the bay mare?'
'Her name is Aziz, and she is a Christian,' said one of the women.
'Not Aziz--Almasta,' said the beautiful woman in an accent which showed
that she could not speak Arabic fluently. 'Almasta, a Christian.'
'She was lately sent as a present to our master by the Emir of Basrah,'
said one of the others.
'He paid a thousand and five hundred sequins for her, for she was
brought from Georgia,' said another. 'But I am a free woman, and myself
the daughter of an emir.'
Then all the others began to scream.
'It is a lie,' they cried. 'Your father was a white slave from Syria.'
'You are fools,' retorted the woman who had spoken. 'You should have
said that you were also free women and the daughters of emirs. So our
lord would have treated you with more consideration.'
The others saw their folly and were silent and drew back, but Khaled
only smiled.
'As good mares are bred in the stable as in the desert,' he said, and
the women laughed with him at the jest, for they saw that it pleased
him.
But Almasta was silent and sat at his feet, looking into his face.
'You must learn to talk in Arabic,' he said, 'and then you will be able
to tell stories of your native country to the Sultan, for he loves tales
of travel.'
Almasta smiled and bent her head a little, but she did not understand
all he said, being but lately come into Arabia.
'I will go with you,' she answered.
'Yes. You will go with me to Riad to the Sultan, and perhaps he will
make you his wife, for he has none at present.'
'I will go with you,' she repeated, looking at him.
'She does not understand you,' said the women, laughing at her ignorance
of their own tongue.
'It is no matter,' said Khaled. 'She will learn in due time. Perhaps it
has pleased Allah to send my lord the Sultan a wife without a tongue for
a blessing in his old age.'
'I will go with you,' Almasta said again.
'She can say nothing else,' jeered the women.
One of them pulled her by her upper garment, so that she looked round.
'Can you say this, "My father was a dog and the son of dogs"?' asked the
woman.
But Almasta pushed her angrily away, for she half understood. Then the
woman grew angry too, and shook her fist in Almasta's face.
'If you fight, you shall eat sticks,' said Khaled, and then they were
all quiet.
Thus he took possession of the city of Hail and remaining there some
time he reduced all the country to submission, so that it remained a
part of the kingdom of Nejed for many years after that. For the power of
the Shammars was broken, and they could nowhere have mustered a thousand
men able to bear arms. Khaled set a governor in the place of the Sultan
and ordered all the laws of the country in the same manner as those of
Nejed, and after he had been absent from Riad nearly two months, he set
aside a part of his force to remain behind and keep the peace in case
there should be an outbreak, and with the rest he began to journey
homeward, taking a great spoil and many captives with him.
During the march most of the women captives rode on camels, but a few of
the most beautiful were taken in litters lest the fatigues of riding
should injure their appearance and thus diminish their value. Almasta
was one of these, and the Sultan of Hail was taken in a cage as has been
said, though he was not otherwise ill-treated, and received his portion
of camel's meat and bread, equal to that of the soldiers.
Khaled sent messengers on fleet mares to Riad to give warning of his
coming, but he could not himself proceed very quickly, because his army
was burdened with so much spoil; and as there was now no haste to
overtake an enemy he journeyed chiefly at night, resting during the day
wherever there was water, for although the summer was far advanced it
was still hot. He thought continually of Zehowah, by day in his tent and
by night on the march, for he supposed that she would be glad when she
heard of the victory and that she would now love him, because he had
avenged her people, and taken Hail, and brought back gold and captives,
besides other treasures.
'She was already pleased with my deeds, before we left Riad,' he
thought, 'for she asked me how many of the Shammars I had slain with my
own hand, and at the last she wished me to stay with her, most probably
that I might tell her more about the fight. How much the more will she
be glad now, since I have killed so many more and have brought back
treasure, and made a whole country subject to her father. Shall not
blood and gold buy the love of a woman?'
It chanced once during this journey that Khaled was sitting at the door
of his tent after the sun had gone down and before the night march had
begun. Upon the one side, at a little distance, was the tent of the
women captives who had been taken from the palace in Hail, and upon the
other the soldiers had set down the cage in which the Sultan of Shammar
was carried. The men had laid a carpet over the cage to keep the sun
from the prisoner during the heat of the day, lest he should not reach
Riad alive as Khaled desired. For the Sultan was fat and of a choleric
temper. Now the soldiers had given him food but had forgotten to bring
him water, and it was hot under the carpet now that the evening had
come. But he could lift it up a little on one side, and having done so,
he began to cry out, cursing Khaled and railing at him, not knowing that
he was so near at hand.
'Oh you whose portion it shall be to broil everlastingly, and to eat
thistles and thorns, and to lie bound in red-hot chains as I lie in this
cage! Have you brought me out into the desert to die of thirst like a
lame camel? Surely your entertainment on the day of judgment shall be
boiling water and the fruit of Al Zakkam, and whenever you try to get
out of hell you shall be dragged back again and beaten with iron clubs,
and your skin shall dissolve, and the boiling water shall be poured upon
your head!'
In this way the captive cried out, for he was very thirsty. But when
Khaled saw that no one gave him water he called in the darkness to the
women who sat by their tent.
'Fetch water and give the man to drink,' he said.
One of the women rose quickly and filled a jar at the well close by, and
took it to the cage. But then the railing and cursing broke out afresh,
so that Khaled wondered what had happened.
'Who has sent me this unbelieving woman to torture me with thirst?'
cried the prisoner. 'Are you not Aziz whom I was about to take for my
fourth wife on account of your red hair? But your hair shall be a
perpetual flame hereafter, burning the bones of your head, and your
flesh shall be white with heat as iron in a forge. If I were still in my
kingdom you should eat many sticks! If Allah delivers me from my enemies
I will cause your skin to be embroidered with gold for a trapping to my
horse!'
The moon rose at this time, being a little past the full, and Khaled
looked towards the cage and saw that the woman was standing two paces
away from the Sultan's outstretched hand. She dabbled in the cool water
with her fingers so that a plashing sound was heard, and then drank
herself, and scattered afterwards a few drops in the face of the thirsty
captive.
'It is good water,' she said. 'It is cold.'
Khaled knew from her broken speech that it was Almasta, and he
understood that she was torturing the prisoner with the sound and sight
of the water, and with her words. So he rose from his place and went to
the cage.
'Did I not tell you to give him drink?' he asked, standing before the
woman.
'Oh my lord, be merciful,' cried the captive, when he saw that Khaled
himself was there. 'Be merciful and let me drink, for your heart is
easily moved to pity, and by an act of charity you shall hereafter sit
in the shade of the tree Sedrat and drink for ever of the wine of
paradise.'
'I do not desire wine,' said Khaled. 'But you shall certainly not
thirst. Give him the jar,' he said to Almasta. But she shook her head.
'He is bad and ugly,' she said. 'If he does not drink, he will die.'
Then Khaled put out his hand to take the jar of water, but Almasta threw
it violently to the ground, and it broke to pieces. Thereupon the
captive began again to rail and curse at Almasta and to implore Khaled
with many blessings.
'You shall drink, for I will bring water myself,' said Khaled. He went
back to his tent and took his own jar to the well, and filled it
carefully.
When he turned he saw that Almasta was running from his tent towards the
cage, with a drawn sword in her hand. He then ran also, and being very
swift of foot, he overtook her just as she thrust at the Sultan through
the bars. But the sword caught in the folds of the soft carpet, and
Khaled took it from her hand, and thrust her down so that she fell upon
her knees. Then he gave the prisoner the jar with the water that
remained in it, for some had been spilt as he ran.
'Who has given you the right to kill my captives?' he asked of Almasta.
'Kill me, then!' she cried.
'Indeed, if you were not so valuable, I would cut off your head,' Khaled
answered. 'Why do you wish me to kill you?'
'I hate him,' she said, pointing to the captive who was drinking like a
thirsty camel.
'That is no reason why I should kill you. Go back to the tents.'
But Almasta laid her hand on the sword he held and tried to bring it to
her own throat.
'This is a strange woman,' said Khaled. 'Why do you wish to die? You
shall go to Riad and be the Sultan's wife.'
'No, no!' she cried. 'Kill me! Not him, not him!'
'Of whom do you speak?'
'Him!' she answered, again pointing to the prisoner. 'Is he not the
Sultan?'
Khaled laughed aloud, for he saw that she had supposed she was to be
taken to Riad to be made the wife of the Sultan of Shammar. Indeed, the
other women had told her so, to anger her.
'Not this man,' he said, endeavouring to make her understand. 'There is
another Sultan at Riad. The Sultan of Shammar is one, the Sultan of
Nejed another.'
'You?' she asked, suddenly springing up. 'With you?'
The moon was bright and Khaled saw that her eyes gleamed like stars and
her face grew warm, and when she took his hands her own were cold.
'No, not I,' he answered. 'I am not the Sultan.'
But her face became grey in the moonlight, and she covered her head with
her veil and went slowly back to her tent.
'This woman loves me,' Khaled thought. 'And as I have not talked much
with her, it must be because I am strong and have conquered the people
among whom she was captive. How much the more then, will Zehowah love
me, for the same reason.'
So he was light of heart, and soon afterwards he commanded everything to
be made ready and mounted his bay mare for the night march.