All the Sweet Tomorrows (44 page)

She was unconscious but a few moments, awakening to
Kedar’s purring voice. “There, my jewel, now you know the price of offending me, do you not?”

“Yes, my lord,” she managed to whisper.

“Repeat the words I taught you last night, fair Muna.”

Skye shivered. She knew exactly what he wanted her to say, and every fiber of her being rebelled against saying
those
words. Still, she was now quite terrified of the bastinado, and realized that should she really displease him, he would not hesitate for a moment to use it again. She rolled onto her stomach, and from there into a kneeling position, her dark head touching the rug. “I am my lord Kedar’s slave,” she said low. “I exist solely for his pleasure.”

Above her, Kedar smiled, satisfied, and raised her up to face him. “You learn quickly, my jewel,” he said approvingly. “I believe you will eventually become my favorite.” Tenderly he brushed a tear from her cheek. “There now, fair Muna, there is naught to cry about. You please me mightily.” He smiled down on her, and then drew her over to the awninged couch. She was shivering with shock, and he pulled her gently down upon the couch with him, wrapping his arms around her. “Dagan, fetch refreshments,” he commanded his slave.

Skye was suddenly very aware of her nudity. “Please, my lord, may I have my garment?”

“Do not be embarrassed before Dagan, my jewel. It means nothing to him, and I prefer you like this for now.” He kissed her lightly, absently caressing her breasts. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured. “Your skin is so flawless, so perfect.”

They were words she was to hear over and over again during the next few weeks. She fascinated and consumed him with her beauty. He cared for nothing else. He rarely spoke to her on any subject of importance; his words being those of her master, her lover. Her days took on a pattern of sameness. She slept the morning away, went to him in early afternoon after visiting the baths, left in late afternoon, slept again, bathed, ate supper alone or with Alima, and sometimes Osman, then awaited Kedar’s return from his business and social rounds late in the evening. She then spent the entire night with him, departing in early morning for her own rooms. As a lover, he was insatiable, and totally unlike any man she had ever known. He cared only for his own pleasure, and took her with great gusto at least three times each night, and very often as many as six. He never seemed to tire of exploring, caressing, and kissing her.

Skye was frankly frightened of Kedar. He was a man of mercurial temperament, and she feared offending him. The threat of
the bastinado was a real and terrifying one to her. Still, she sought ways in which to intrigue him, for she did not want him to grow bored with her. She found that quick changes of mood on her part interested him greatly; and so she was shy one moment, daring the next. She knew he particularly enjoyed her reactions to his lovemaking, and so even when he moved too quickly to arouse her she pretended great passion. It stroked his ego, and he rumbled his contentment like the great cat she pictured him. “You are perfection,” he would murmur against her ear. “Sweet, honeyed perfection!” More often than not she would shiver at his words.

The day before they left Algiers for Fez, Osman came to Skye’s chambers in the women’s quarters. He felt some guilt for the faint purple circles under her eyes, but there was a new air of determination about her that he had never seen before. “I have had word from Hamal, my daughter. He says you are to come ahead. Your Niall still lives.”

“Thank God!” Skye breathed fervently.

“Skye,” it was the first time he had called her by her own name in weeks. “I am quite frankly worried about your effect upon Kedar. If you had set out to enchant him—and I know you have not—you could not have done a better job of it. He can speak of nothing but you and your beauty when he is with me. If I did not know better I should say he is falling in love with you, and that, my daughter, must not happen! I knew his reputation, of course, but frankly, until now I was not fully aware of his appetites. I wonder if I have not set you too hard a task.”

“You have said it yourself, Osman. There is no other choice. Niall is alive, and I will not rest until I have freed him. How could I, knowing what I know, return to my former life? There is only one way to Fez for me, and I am already on that road. Why do you fret so? Have my stars changed suddenly, Osman?”

“No, they have not changed. You will always attain your heart’s desire, Skye, though the road to it be roughly paved, though you yourself may not even know what it is you want. In the end you will gain your goals. In this have you been singularly blessed.”

“Then tomorrow I leave for Fez,” Skye said quietly.

“Does he abuse you?” Osman flushed at the boldness of his own words to her, but he was truly distressed at the situation in which he had placed her. He had never seen his nephew so consumed by anything, let alone a woman. Then, too, Alima had
mentioned that Skye had an occasional bruise, and marks on her body that might possibly indicate that Kedar was mistreating her.

“Your nephew is enthusiastic in his wooing of me,” Skye said wryly. “No, he has not actually hurt me, although he has threatened me with the bastinado should I misbehave. He illustrated that threat with a sample of that particular punishment. He does not, you see, want to mark my skin with a lash. His small lesson was a warning that my behavior should always be decorous. I will admit, Osman, that he frightens me.”

“Allah curse him! I shall speak to him this day, my daughter.” Osman was angry, and his eyes blazed as Skye had never seen them blaze, for he had always been a gentle man toward her.

“Osman!” Her voice was tight with warning. “You cannot tell him how to treat his possession, and you know it. You presented me to him as a gift, and you know that the only justice for a slave is that which the master gives. Right now Kedar, for all his fierceness, adores me, but he is not stupid. Interfere and he will wonder why. He might even grow jealous, and I dare not have that.”

Osman sighed, resigned. “You are correct, my daughter. I have allowed my paternal feelings for you to cloud my own judgment. Do not fear, Skye. Whatever happens I will get you out of Fez when you choose to leave. I will not permit you to languish in my nephew’s harem. That is most certainly not your fate!”

Skye gave him a mischievous smile that touched his heart. He had not seen her smile in some days now. “I should hope not, my old friend, although, quite frankly, I will welcome reaching Kedar’s harem. Perhaps when he has all his women available to him again he will not use me so frequently. I never thought to grow tired of lovemaking, Osman, but, dear Heaven, I have! Your nephew’s prowess is surely unequaled for he can make love the entire night without ceasing, and seems not to suffer from the lack of sleep as I certainly do!”

Osman shook his head sympathetically. “It is said that he had his first woman at the age of ten. My late sister was shocked, but her husband thought it a marvelous thing to have sired so randy an heir, especially since Kedar was his only child at the time.”

“Does Kedar have any children?” Skye asked. “He never speaks of his women, but then he rarely speaks with me at all except to command me to his will.”

“Although he has no wives, he does have several offspring, but unlike most Fasi men, he seems to care little for them. I
don’t even think that he could tell you their names, ages, or sex. He does not care for children, I believe.” Osman decided it would be wise to say nothing of the fact that Kedar had confided in his uncle that he wished to have children by Muna. Skye had enough to worry about, and as long as she had her special potion she would not conceive. “You do have your special potion?” he asked her worriedly. “Do you have enough to last you several months, my daughter?”

“I have just made a fresh batch. Kedar allowed me to go with Alima to the marketplace, and I was able to obtain the ingredients that I need. It looks and smells like a fragrance, and will be thought to be such, Osman.

“It amused Kedar to let me visit the market. He loved the idea that I might wander at will and no one would know what a ‘delicious morsel’ I am, to quote him. No one can tell who I am when I am dressed in my yashmak and veiled. Kedar tells me the marketplaces in Fez are legendary.”

“You will enjoy them, my daughter. The merchant in you will delight at the variety of goods available. Remember to buy with an open hand. You are the favorite of the lord Kedar, and he will be generous with you. Buy gifts for the other women and children in the harem often, and you will quickly make friends.”

“I am not going to Fez to make friends, Osman.”

“Nonetheless you do not want to make enemies of any of Kedar’s other women. Women can be vicious when jealous, my daughter. Have you so quickly forgotten Yasmin? Be charming and friendly, and above all be generous. You do not know when you will need a friend, even in Kedar’s harem.”

“None of his women would dare to betray him, Osman. He is a man quick to punish an offense real or imagined. And no one will risk his lash for me, be I generous or not. He beat one of his favorites to death, you know. Still, I will take your advice and be friendly.”

“I will rest easier knowing that, Skye,” was Osman’s reply. He rose up from the divan as she did, and taking her hands in his said, “Go with Allah’s blessing, my daughter. He will not fail to hear your prayers, for your mission is a just one. One bit of advice, and one only I give to you. Consider carefully before you act. Do not allow fear or enthusiasm to drive you to any rashness. You will survive!”

She looked into his wonderful and mysterious eyes, and for a brief moment she felt swept away. She knew as she gazed into their depths that she would indeed survive, and something akin to exultation poured over her. She would succeed in her rescue
of Niall! They would return home to Ireland, and happily raise their children as they grew old together! Skye found her voice. “Thank you, Osman, my old friend. Thank you!” Putting her arms about his neck, she kissed him on the cheek.

The astrologer actually blushed, but nonetheless he hugged her back. Then without another word he left her. “Farewell, my friend,” she called after him, and Osman turned. The look in his eyes was a tender one. “Farewell, my daughter,” he answered softly. As she watched him go Skye wondered if she should ever see him again after she departed Algiers tomorrow.

Despite the fact that they were to leave for Fez in the very early morning, Kedar did not change his habits at all that night. If anything, his excitement over leaving Algiers increased his appetite for Skye. He loved to lie nude, propped up by the multi-colored pillows, his legs spread, while she knelt between his limbs, her buttocks on her heels, her arms out for balance, her long dark hair loose about her. His hands would hold his penis up while she would administer to him with her mouth, her tongue, her little teeth. Soon he would have no need to brace his manhood, and she would obediently roll onto her back to receive him.

When he had taken her three times that night she dared to beg him, “No more, my lord, else I cannot rise to leave for Fez.”

A growl of laughter was his answer, but he left her alone to sleep on the pillow below his couch until just before the dawn, when his foot prodded her awake. In a surprisingly thoughtful gesture, he said, “If you wish to bathe, Muna, go now and do so. There will be little chance for a civilized bath for the next month. Occasionally we may camp by a spring, but unless I can guarantee you total privacy you will not be able to avail yourself of it.”

Skye scrambled to her feet. “Thank you, my lord,” she said, catching up her caftan and putting it about her as she hurried from the room lest he change his mind and his lust get the better of him.

“Wait!”

She turned, thinking, Dear God, not again.

“I have a small gift for you,” he said. “When you have bathed be sure to put it on.” He held out an object.

“Thank you, my lord,” she said softly as she took it. “A bracelet. How lovely!”

“No, an anklet. I had it specially made for you. Once you put it on it cannot be removed except it be cut off. Go now!”

Skye left the room fingering the anklet as she went. It was a slender circle of pure gold, engraved with several Arabic letters and a delicate geometric pattern. Here and there amid the pattern was a tiny sapphire imbedded in the gold. It was really quite beautiful.

Hurrying to her room, she awoke her own slave woman, Zada, and sent her off to instruct the bath woman Nigera and her helpers. Zada had been her first gift from Kedar. He had escorted her, properly garbed so that only the merest slit of her eyes showed, to the slave market to purchase a servant for her. He had thought to buy her a European woman so she would not be lonely. It had been a very kind gesture on his part, but Skye had insisted she preferred a young Arab girl. Had he insisted upon the European, she would have felt guilty leaving the woman in Fez when she and Niall escaped. The Arab girl, however, would be reassigned a new mistress and no harm would be done.

“They await you in the baths, mistress.” Zada had returned.

Skye nodded, and went off to bathe. When she returned Zada had laid out the garments in which she would travel. Silently she put on the long, cream-colored silk chemise, a pale-beige djellabah embroidered in brown silk thread and tiny topaz, and soft, brown kidskin slippers. The djellabah was hooded, and had long sleeves. Before Zada raised the hood and fastened the gold gauze veil across Skye’s face, she brushed her mistress’s long dark hair and dressed it with narrow gold ribbons in the single braid that Skye favored. “Go to my lord Kedar,” Skye said, “and say that I beg his permission because of the heat of the day to put aside my yashmak.”

Zada obediently followed her mistress’s instructions, and returned several minutes later to say, “The master says you must wear the yashmak as far as the cart. You may remove it before you enter the vehicle, but not until then.”

“Very well,” Skye answered. “Fetch the lady Alima to me now, Zada. I would say my good-byes.”

Zada once more hurried out, returning several minutes later with Alima. Skye then dismissed the slave girl, telling her to see to her own last-minute preparations. “I think she spies for Dagan, who reports everything I do to Kedar,” Skye said, amused.