He Who Lifts the Skies (16 page)

Nimr-Rada struck Keren’s chest and left shoulder with his flail, stopping the very breath in her lungs. As she recoiled in pain, Sharah and the women surrounding them
shrieked, terrified.

Nimr-Rada snarled. “One more word from you, my sister, and I will flay your skin to bloody strips! You will be an example to everyone here—do not doubt me!”

“Lady,” the young woman nearest Keren begged timidly, “please, don’t trouble yourself for us. We’ll go with you gladly.”

Catching her breath, Keren recognized the sincerity in the girl’s huge dark eyes. All five of the young women were silently imploring Keren to agree. Rebellion against Nimr-Rada was out of the question. Struggling against the impulse to put her hands to her burning shoulder and chest, Keren nodded to her would-be attendants, and they relaxed.

Nimr-Rada gouged Keren with the haft of his flail. “Go with them before I lose patience with you altogether—ungrateful she-cat.”

As Keren joined the young women, she noticed Sharah’s look of satisfaction, and the way she leaned toward Nimr-Rada, clearly inviting his touch. Revolted, she turned on her heel and marched toward her tent. She had gone perhaps seven paces when she realized that everyone was staring at her, openmouthed, and none of her young attendants were following her. Looking back, she saw that the girls had stopped to gather Keren’s gifts and to bow to Nimr-Rada. His dark eyes flashed from their humbly prostrated forms to the defiantly upright Keren.

I’d rather die than fall at your feet
, Keren thought, looking Nimr-Rada in the eyes.
You’re not the Promised One, and you are certainly not the Most High!

Controlling herself, she waited for her attendants. When Nimr-Rada dismissed them with a growl and a wave of his flail, the five girls scuttled toward Keren like
frightened rabbits. She led them to her tent, pausing to look over her shoulder before going inside. Nimr-Rada was still glaring at her.

The young women introduced themselves to Keren: Na’ah, Alatah, Gebuwrah, Tsinnah, and Revakhaw. Then they set down her gifts and confronted her.

“How can you defy the Great King?” Alatah demanded, her thin, brown face scared, her voice sweet and childish. “When you refused to bow, Lady, I was sure he would kill you.”

“I was certain he would,” Gebuwrah agreed. She was the biggest and sturdiest of the five girls, reminding Keren of her cousin Khuldah, without her kindness. “You shouldn’t have defied the Great King, Lady. But perhaps because you challenged him, he will regard you as one of his cats to be tamed and subdued.”

The other four girls nodded in agreement.

“What cats?” Keren asked, curious. Nimr-Rada had indeed called her “she-cat.”

“As the name of Nimr-Rada declares, our Great King subdues leopards for sport,” Tsinnah told her. Tsinnah, diminutive and rosy brown, was the girl who had pleaded with her before Nimr-Rada. “My father took me to see these leopards once. They are kept in cages and hate their guard-keepers, but I’m told that they love the Great King and rest in his presence.”

“They have gold collars with jewels,” Revakhaw added, as if the gold collars were most important. She was apparently the youngest of the attendants. Her glossy black curls and her eyes were dancing merrily now that
her fear was fading.

“But, Lady …,” Na’ah hesitated, glancing uneasily toward the open entryway of the tent, her round face somber. “If one of the leopards refuses to be tamed within a reasonable amount of time, then the Great King kills it and wears its hide. We’ve seen that he won’t spare you. Please, be careful.”

Remembering Nimr-Rada’s spectacular leopard-skin mantle, Keren shivered. “Thank you for your concern. I’ll remember what you’ve said. Also, you shouldn’t be so formal with me. My name is Keren.”

“But we are commanded to serve and respect you, Lady,” Revakhaw explained, her hands fluttering. “We must call you Lady, particularly when we arrive in the Great City, because they are so much more formal there and pay great attention to manners—which I dread. Even so, I’m glad that we’re tending you, Lady, and not the Pale One. I can see that
she
wouldn’t care what happens to us as long as she’s happy.”

“Shhh!” Na’ah put a finger to her lips, again glancing toward the tent’s open entryway. “I was told that the Pale One will marry He-Who-Lifts-the-Skies. I’m sure you’d be whipped for speaking against her.”

“The Pale One would be sure of it,” Keren muttered dryly, still enraged that Sharah had abandoned Bezeq and Gibbawr for Nimr-Rada. Keren was equally sure that she herself would be severely punished if she revealed that Sharah was already married, and a mother.

Nimr-Rada’s own guards had been sworn to silence in this matter with death threats, which made Keren nervous. Would Nimr-Rada kill Bezeq and Gibbawr to hide Sharah’s past? Sharah certainly wouldn’t care. Sickened, Keren lowered her head into her hands, murmuring, “O
Most High, save us from my greedy sister.”

“You still pray to the Most High?” Gebuwrah asked, sounding as if Keren was afflicted with a childish superstition. Keren eyed Gebuwrah and the others.

“You
don’t
pray to the Most High?”

They all shook their heads or grimaced in denial. Tsinnah spoke gently. “We have no need for such prayers. He-Who-Lifts-the-Skies has said that we should be free of our fears of the Most High.”

“Which is why you bow and tremble before that same He-Who-Lifts-the-Skies
man,”
Keren scoffed. “One who leaves marks like this upon your flesh.” Keren lifted the left sleeve of her tunic, showing them the still-burning weal of blood-tinged flesh left by Nimr-Rada’s flail. Revakhaw, Na’ah, and Tsinnah winced, but Gebuwrah and Alatah looked away uneasily.

“I’ll get some water for you, Lady,” Na’ah told Keren, snatching a clay pitcher from its matching basin.

By unspoken agreement, the other four girls began to tidy up the tent and arrange their sleeping pallets for the night. Obviously they were determined to avoid any discussion of the Most High, or of Nimr-Rada’s cruelty. Aggrieved, Keren remade her own pallet. As she worked, she realized that all of Sharah’s belongings had been removed from the tent during the meeting.

So you will go to Nimr-Rada tonight, pretending to be his wife
, Keren thought to Sharah, flushing, mortified.
How will I be able to endure all this in the Great City? I dread it. I’d rather submit to a beating—though my skin still burns from Nimr-Rada’s whip, and I can’t imagine having wounds like this all over my arms and back. O Most High, what should I do?

Na’ah approached now, her eyes lowered. Keren took the basin of cool water from her, saying, “Thank you, but
next time, I’ll get my own water. Don’t wait on me.”

“We
will
wait on you, Lady,” Gebuwrah answered severely, before Na’ah could speak. “If we don’t fulfill our duties, we’ll be sent home in disgrace, and our parents will be too ashamed to receive us. We are bound, as you are bound.”

“But why should we be bound?” Keren asked, almost crying. “We should be left in peace with our families—with those who love us!” Humiliated, she set the basin on a grass mat and knelt beside it, splashing the cool water over her face to hide her tears.

Tsinnah offered Keren a swatch of leather to wipe her face. Tears brimmed in the girl’s eyes. “Lady, don’t be ashamed to cry. We’ve all been crying. But we accept what’s happened to us. Perhaps we will love our new lives in the Great City.”

“You don’t sound convinced,” Keren told her. A flicker in the light of the open entryway alerted them all to the presence of another: Sharah.

She was smiling graciously, as if she were already the preeminent lady of the Great City, deigning to visit lowly creatures. “My sister,” she said coolly, “your temper will be your death. The Great King is furious with you.”

Keren stiffened, loathing the very sight of Sharah. “Why are you here?”

“Only to be sure you’re well. And to admire your new possessions.” Sharah picked her way around the pallets and mats on the floor, moving toward the heap of tributes the other girls had given Keren. “These furs are lovely. And the trays are wonderfully crafted. Ma’adannah would be proud of the maker. She would be doubly proud of the one who made this.”

Lifting Keren’s showy gold necklace with the red
stones, Sharah asked, “May I?” Without waiting for permission, she fastened the necklace around her pale throat, then picked up Keren’s beautifully polished obsidian hand mirror, shifting it this way and that, admiring herself.

“Take the necklace and go,” Keren snapped, eager to be rid of her. “Wear it at your ‘wedding’ tonight.”

Sharah lifted her pale eyebrows in surprise. “You’ve guessed that already? I was only told this morning that the ceremony would take place this evening. I would have preferred a celebration in the Great City, but my beloved says otherwise.” She fingered the ornate necklace and said, “You’ll be there, of course, my own shadow-sister. And you’ll wear your new ornament to honor me.”

“Didn’t you come to take it for yourself?” Keren stared in disbelief as Sharah removed the coveted necklace and set it gently on a pile of furs.

“I wish I could, but He-Who-Lifts-the-Skies won’t permit it. And you’ve worked him into such a temper already.…”

Sharah straightened, her pretended graciousness replaced by her usual irritability. “Really, your first name,
Karan
, is more fitting for you, Keren. You push the Great King too much. I’ll tell you: I didn’t want you to come with us to the Great City. You’ll be a nuisance. But He-Who-Lifts-the-Skies insisted, and our brother Ra-Anan has humbly requested the joy of meeting you. The Great King esteems our eldest brother, though he detests the others.” Sharah moved toward the open door of the tent, adding, “Remember what I’ve said. If you push the Great King too far, I won’t intercede for you.”

“You’ve already done enough for me, thank you, sister,” Keren answered, clenching her hands, feeling her nails digging into her palms.

As if she sensed Keren’s readiness to attack her, Sharah bent, preparing to step outside the tent. But she turned first, smiling. “By the way, your guards are here.”

Following Sharah to the entryway, Keren glanced outside. Lawkham and the forbidding Zehker were standing on either side of the entry, each holding a spear. Lawkham gave her a sidelong look and a trace of a grin, but Zehker stared straight ahead as if she didn’t exist.

Furious, Keren picked at the ties of the entry cover, wanting to block the two guardsmen from her sight. The other girls, silent and gaping the whole time Sharah was in the tent, hurried to help her now.

As soon as they had closed themselves inside, Revakhaw whispered, “I think I’ve seen more excitement in this one day than I have in all my life! Does your sister love anyone but herself?”

Before Keren could answer, Gebuwrah said, “She’s right to call you ‘shadow-sister,’ Lady. You look exactly like her except for your coloring.”

“You do, Lady,” Alatah agreed. “It’s obvious you were born of the same mother.”

“Speaking of looks,” Revakhaw whispered, her dark eyes dancing naughtily in the dimness, “did you notice our guards? I won’t mind having them follow us everywhere!”

Despite themselves, the other girls giggled. Their laughter grew, becoming hysterical, releasing them from the strains of the day. Keren allowed herself to smile. If she didn’t smile, she would cry.

As the others chattered and rested in the sultry warmth, Keren remembered Sharah’s comment about Ra-Anan.
Why should you request the joy of meeting me?
Keren wondered to her eldest brother.
And why should that “Mighty

One” hold you in such esteem? It makes me anxious. May the Most High protect me from you. And from Nimr-Rada
.

Relaxing against a battered stump just outside the Lodge of Noakh, Annah smoothed the sides of a large wooden bowl with fine sand. Later, she would polish the bowl with beeswax to enhance the beautiful grain of the wood. Shem had cut and shaped the bowl for her after noticing that her favorite mixing bowl was becoming worn, but Annah was finishing it to allow Shem time to help Noakh in the fields. The early summer weather promised good crops, which meant that they could stay in the highlands for the winter. They wouldn’t need to move down to the warmer lowlands to shelter and search for food.