Shiri (9 page)

Her lip curved into a knowing snarl, it was as she had thought. He would promise her freedom and talk her into willingly debasing and humiliating herself to satisfy his perverted lusts. Then he’d laugh at her in the morning, call her a stupid whore, and say how easy it had been to trick her. But she was too smart for him, “Hah! You want sleep me, I no want sleep you, you same as others ... you same but bigger ugly, hah!”

“No I don’t want to sleep with you,” he raised his voice. “You can sleep on the mattress.” He pointed to it. “I’ll sleep on the floor. Then in the morning when the army has pulled out you can go home and forget all this.”

“Stupid Gypto I already tell, no home no family you kill. I clever you stupid hah! I know your words you not know mine!” She tapped the side of her head with her knuckles and m
ade a mocking open-mouthed face. “Stupid fat Gypto. You dumb like donkey.” She produced a noise that he assumed was supposed to sound like said creature. “Donkey! Donkey! Stupid fat donkey! Hah!”

“Sweet
Ba’al
almighty!” he raised his arms, half laughing as he turned away from her.

He heard her voice again, “What you say?” Her voice was different this time, softer, quieter.

He glanced over his shoulder, weary from all this. He rubbed his head. The wound in his scalp was throbbing.

“What you say?” She said again, staring at him intently.

Now it was his turn to be confused. “What?”

“What you say? What you say! Say again!” She rose to her feet and stepped closer.

He shook his head. “Um ... you can go home and forget all this.”

“No!
No!” she stamped her foot in frustration. “The bull!
Ba’al
the bull!” She struggled to find the words, “The ... the Storm Lord!
Ba’al
!” Two more steps brought her face only inches from his. She seemed almost to be studying him, his features, his nose, his mouth, his cheeks, still red and bleeding where she had scratched him. He was paler than the other Gypto’s. Her gaze rested on his eyes – so blue, none of the others had blue eyes. She remembered something, something from a past that seemed almost a dream. Soldiers ... soldiers in Yaham. He looked away. He had never before failed to meet someone’s gaze, not even his father’s, but he failed now.

She spoke again, more softly than he had heard her speak before, “
Ba’al
god of Shepherd not Egypt.”

Part II

Master and Slave

I

She stood there, hands on hips, legs sligh
tly apart, daring him to answer. “Who are you?” She said again, and this time in her own tongue, “You’re no Gypto.”

“B
e silent.” He balled his hand into a fist and attempted an aggressive gesture. “Be silent or it will be the worse for you.”

“Be silent,”
it was a nasal mockery of his own voice. She took a step closer, staring up at him almost aggressively and then all at once she shoved him. “Who are you?” He was forced to take a step back, his mouth felt dry. “You ask many questions,” he said slowly.

“
You answer few.”

“It’
s no concern of yours who I am,” he said at length. “I bought you and now I’m freeing you. What does the rest of it matter? Once we’re away from the camp we’ll go our separate ways. So let that be the end of it.” He turned from her as if there was no more to be said.

The girl was clearly of a different opinion.
“You’ll tell me or ... or I’ll scream ... I’ll scream loud enough to rouse the whole camp and you can explain yourself to Pharaoh.”

He turned and for the first time answ
ered the girl in her own tongue. “Scream all you want, nobody will come.”

She
scrunched her lips as if tasting something bitter. “You weren’t lying when you said you would release me were you?”

“
Like I said, you can sleep in the tent here tonight, and tomorrow too if need be, and once the army has left you can go.”

“Just tell me who you are.”

She was, he concluded, decidedly ungrateful. “If I tell you, you’ll have a power over me. You may try to blackmail me.”

She huffed in frustration.
“Oh why would I do that?”

“They are many reasons why someone would betray me.”

“I won’t betray the man who saved me.”

He deemed it was the closest thing to a
‘thank you’ he was likely to get off this one. “What if the Gyptos capture you again, they’ll have troops all over the country scouring it for survivors of the battle. They might ask you questions, they might use means to persuade you to talk.”

“You mean … you mean they will not be leaving?”

“Pharaoh is not one to leave his enemy half beaten,” he said. “He’ll kill every man that didn’t keep his lips planted firmly on the ground, he’ll burn every village if need be and won’t rest till he’s hunted down the last rebel survivors. And more than that, word is he means to have every first-born in bondage.”

Shiri bit her lip.
I’m a first-born.
“And this is what I’m to be released to? To go back to the ruins of my village and wait for them to return?”

“Well what
am I supposed to do about it?”

“You can tell me your name for starters.”

He said it, even though he had sworn to himself that he wouldn’t. “Josef”

“Josef!”
her eyes opened wide. “Not ... not the Prince? The Shepherd King’s son?”
It was
. She could see the King in his hair, those eyes, “And I...” She was suddenly embarrassed.
The Prince and I called him a donkey ... a stupid, fat, ugly donkey.
She curtsied quickly, her cheeks scarlet, “B...begging your pardon ... m’lord ... Your Grace ... I didn’t mean ... well what I meant was...” A long awkward pause, and then she looked at him again, “But ... the Prince was killed in the battle! I heard the fat one say it to the soldier that caught me.”

He shrugged.
“No, that was another.”

Almost imperceptibly a strange look clouded her eyes. At first it was a just the ghost of suspicion, but slowly it grew; grew until the suspicion
turned to certainty. She glared at him, suddenly aggressive. She came forward pointing at his money pouch. “How came you by that? How came you to laugh and joke with the Gyptos as your people are whipped and sold like animals?”

“Well .
.. Pharaoh ... he rewarded me for...”

“He gave you coin
! He ... He paid you off!”

“Aye, well, no … it’
s complicated ... I did not betray my people, this is not what you think.”

“You tell me what I think now?”

“No, I...”

“
You take the menfolk of Yaham so she is undefended. Did you know it was their plan to steal into the village all along?” He opened his mouth, but the girl gave him no chance to answer. “You tarry with Aratama so as to avoid the fight, and now you celebrate and take coin from the Gyptos.”

He turned away so she wouldn
’t see her words hit home. “Aye, that’s about the size of it ... I daresay I couldn’t have served Pharaoh any better if I tried.” He slumped into his stool and buried his face in a mug of heady ale.

They stayed like that for a while. He, sitting under a cloud of doom, determined to drown his sorrows, she, standing there, gazing at him with disgust. Then after what seemed like an age he slowly rotated and looked into her eyes, searching for any sign of treachery. And then, all at once, he gushed out his story. It was like a dam had burst and in the flood he held nothing back.

He explained how Aratama had betrayed him, how he had fought with Yuya, and how in desperation he had donned his robes and taken his place. He told her everything, even his plan to go to Heliopolis and make a claim for Yuya’s birthright and maybe, just maybe gain enough influence to ease the plight of the people he’d failed. He could achieve nothing in Palestine. Every minute he stayed offered the risk of being recognised, and look how easily the first one of his own people he’d spoken to had seen through him. Only in Egypt, where Yuya hadn’t been seen since he was a child did he have a chance. Only from there could he gain some form of revenge on the man who killed his father, only from there could he help them.

She stared at him as he spoke. His eyes burned with the intensity of his words and in that inferno she saw truth. But still she was suspici
ous. She inched a little closer. “How do I know you’re not just spinning me a yarn?”

He shrugged.
“You can imagine me as a traitor or accept me as a fool.”

“You
really think you will be able to help them?”

“Probably not.
I probably won’t even make it to Heliopolis. If you can see through me so easily, what chance have I got with people that actually knew Yuya when he was a child? I have nothing, no allies, no armies and barely enough coin to make it to Egypt, nothing.”

“You
... have me,” she said softly.

He smiled.
“No not even you, you are going back to your village, remember?”

“Back to my village
?” she rolled her eyes. “Back to await the next Gypto raiding party?”

“Well what else is there?”

“I ... I could go with you. I could help you.”

His face grew stern
. “No, I’ll not be bringing you into the viper’s nest. You’re staying in Palestine.”

“To do what?
Sit by my parents’ graves and wait for the Gyptos to return and do to me what they did to them?”

“Well you can’
t come to Egypt, you couldn’t pass for an Egyptian, ‘twould take months to teach you to speak the language fluently and even then your accent would betray you.”

“And you? How will you pass as a noble without a slave, without even horse or guard? A man
who curses to the wrong gods?” She cocked her head cheekily.

“I have money enough for a horse, and I’ll
survive better without a guard questioning my every move.” He waved the subject aside. “But now it seems you have me at a disadvantage, you know my story, but I don’t even know your name.”

She smiled at him and he was surprised to see her confident swagger return to timid redness, “What does it matter what my name is? I
’m no prince or princess, just a nobody caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“It matters to me.”

She blushed again looking away this time. “Shiri, my name is Shiri.” She returned her gaze to him reasserting her determination. “And I will go to Egypt with you.”

“You won’
t.”

“I will.”

He deposited his mug on the table with a conclusive thump, “They killed my parents, and have enslaved my people. It’s my fight.”

“It is
my fight as much as yours! They killed
my
parents too! They killed everyone I have ever known! Ethan, Old Dathan, Ruth, Simeon, everyone! They burned my village! And ... they are my people too.”

He looked at her with a heavy heart.
She wanted to help, thought she could help.
She could match him death for death and likely come out on top. Her delicate features, battered and bruised by cruel hands were illuminated by naive and determined resolve.

“I am going with you,
” she repeated.

“
Two orphans united by hate eh?” He rose, and moved forward placing a hand on her shoulder. For a moment she thought he would relent. But no, he held his ground, he spoke quietly, apologetically, but his words were firm. “Shiri, you can’t pass as an Egyptian, you’ll just slow me down, and get in my way. I can’t let anybody or anything do that. The best way you can help me is by leaving me; let me know that I have at least delivered one from bondage.”

“I won’
t slow you down! I... ” she paused as if struggling to get out the words then spoke quietly, looking at her feet. “I promise I’ll never do anything to hurt your cause. And I could pass as your … as your slave. You bought me remember?” She continued more quickly now, gaining confidence in her suggestion. “You’ll attract less attention with a slave.” She looked up hopefully.

Josef glared at her, angry now. True enough a slave might improve his chances of melding in, but he would not allow it. He hadn
’t saved her from the clutches of those two scoundrels just to return her to chains once more. “You will not enter Egypt as a slave. I forbid it.”

“Oh you forbid it do you?”

“I do. You’ve seen how they treat their slaves and I’ll not have that for you.”

“You certainly won’
t,” she said. “I’ll clean no Gypto floors, nor toil in their fields.”

“Well ho
w are you to pass as a slave then?” He rolled his eyes.

“You ...
you could say that I was
your
slave, and your slave alone, to take orders only from you. You could let the others know that I am not expected to toil for them. Many Gyptos have slaves like that, I’ve heard of them.”

Josef thought for a moment.
“Aye, some noble women have such slaves, they call them...” he flushed a little. “They call them bodyslaves, they bathe them and help them don their makeup and the like, but they’re usually older than those they serve, and it’s not something that’s common for men. And as for those men that do take pretty young women for bodyslaves they ... well they only have them for one reason.”

He thinks me pretty?
She seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment. “But ... but it’s not unheard of?”

“I don’
t think you’ll be wanting to give me baths or...”

“NO
! It would just be for appearances, when we are alone we would be like now ... as equals.” She wasn’t sure if she should have said equals, he was a prince after all and she, like she’d said was a nobody.

Josef looked at her.
“And we could tell the Gyptos that you’re teaching me the language of the slaves.”

She grinned.
He’s coming around.

“I don’
t know if it will work,” he said.

“It will work.”

“You’ll keep my secret?” he said, “our secret.”

“Y
ou’ll remember that you have freed me?” she replied, “that I am not really your slave?”

“Aye ...
I’d never force you to do anything you don’t want to, and if any other tries to I won’t allow it.”

“Then you can trust me ... always.”

He frowned, fresh objections forming in his mind. “I still say you’d be safer in Yaham, even with Gypto raiders. You escaped them before and they’ll not come in such force again.”

She shook her head, she
’d seen what the Gyptos could do and she’d only found one man who seemed capable of standing up to them. She was not inclined to let him go. “No,” he continued, “I won’t have it, what if something happens to me? You’ll be doomed to a life of slavery ...
real
slavery.”

“Then
I’ll have to make sure you stay alive.”

With a
reluctant sigh he gave an inch. “Alright, Shiri, have it your way ... but at the first sign of trouble I’ll have you on your way back here.” He managed to force a smile. Perhaps it might be better for him to have a slave. But despite her protests to the contrary, he doubted it would be better for her.

She hugged him, then as if realising what she was doing, blushed and
drew back quickly. She curtsied. “Thank you ... master”