Khaled F. Marion Crawford (best romance novels of all time .TXT) 📖

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 Haïl 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 Haïl 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 Haïl, 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 Haïl, 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