Daniel Abraham - Inside Straight

Prince Siraj gaped at her. He was handsome, but his smooth round face and the bulge of a belly against his robes showed the dangers of sufficient food for a Bedouin. No matter that the royal house of Jordan had been out of the desert for four generations. Two thousand years of subsistence living was bred deep in the bone, and it whispered constantly that this meal might be the last for a long, long time.

“Are—” He coughed and tried again. “—Are you the one Noel sent?”

“You better hope so.” Lilith stepped into the room. A breeze off the Tigris stirred the white fabric of the mosquito netting that swaddled the bed. An elaborate mosaic of multicolored stone covered the floor. It depicted King Nebuchadnezzar hunting waterfowl in the rushes. But of course, Saddam had been a secularist. Lilith wondered how long until the Islamic purity patrols of the Caliph would destroy this art.

“I have your clothes.” Siraj lifted the folds of black material from the bed and thrust the abaya and burqa into her hands.

She pulled off the shimagh , and her waist-length black hair tumbled free. Siraj stared at her. At five-ten, Lilith was a couple of inches taller than the prince. Her only worry was the silver eyes, legacy of the wild card, but fortunately the Muslim requirement of modest downcast eyes for women worked to her advantage.

“Noel said you were in school together?” she asked as she dropped the tentlike garment over her body. With one of her blades she cut discreet openings in the material that she could reach through.

“Yes. At Cambridge. We were great, good friends. He loves our culture.” The sentences emerged in agitated little bursts of sound.

“Would a friend put you in this position?” Lilith asked. The mesh was disconcerting to look through, and the veils reduced her peripheral vision. She felt naked beneath the layers of cloth.

“I can be a bridge,” the prince said as he paced around the room. His hands kept clasping and unclasping. “Between our two worlds.”

“It’s just one world,” Lilith said, then added, “Do you have the map?”

“Yes.” He handed her a piece of paper, and hurriedly pulled back his hand when their fingers brushed.

Lilith wondered at the avoidance. He had been educated in England, and lived for long periods in the West. Perhaps it was just the proximity of the Caliph that had him jumpy. She looked down at the paper. It looked like a cross section of a honeycomb. “A little hint would help. You know, insane religious nutters sleep here,” Lilith said.

Siraj flushed at her drawling British delivery. “He changes rooms… frequently.”

“Well, that’s… irritating.”

“He’s become increasingly paranoid.”

“Understandable. He was nearly assassinated by his sister.” She gave Siraj a bright smile, then realized he couldn’t see her features. Ridiculous culture.

Siraj plunged on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Even though I’m on his council, I think… well, I think he doesn’t trust me any longer. It started when the Righteous Djinn arrived. The Djinn disapproves of Western education. He thinks it taints us.” The hand washing had become even more fervent. “You mustn’t fail.”

“Relax. Tonight you have a pro.”

The prince looked around as if expecting the walls of the room to collapse in upon them. “It may not be as easy as you think. The Djinn accompanies the Caliph everywhere. He is enormously strong, and he can become a giant.”

“Good thing we’re indoors.”

Her light response didn’t please Siraj. “Since you find the Djinn unworthy of concern, you might remember that there is also Bahir.”

“I’m very aware of Bahir.”

But it didn’t stop the nervous flow. “Bahir can teleport. Many an enemy has been surprised to find his scimitar suddenly behind them. It’s the last surprise they have before they’re beheaded.”

“Little flamboyant, don’t you think? A gun would be easier and far more certain.” She was very aware of the pistol strapped to the inside of her thigh.

“Well, yes, it’s a stereotype, but it’s also symbolic. The street loves it.”

“All that symbolism is why the Arab has found himself despised and dismissed.” Lilith looked at the map again. “I can’t just go teleporting into rooms hoping to find the Caliph. Do you have any idea where he’ll be?”

“He’s at the banquet now,” the prince said, “with the Egyptians. Aziz.”

Kamal Farag Aziz. Egypt’s new strongman had come to power when the meddling Americans had forced a free election that swept out the secularists in power and swept in the fundamentalists of Ikhlas al-Din. “Is your absence going to be problematic?”

Siraj shook his head. “I took ipecac. No one doubted I was sick.”

“Ah, ipecac. Every British schoolboy’s delight.” Lilith paced. “Well, I can’t crash the party.” The folds of the burqa twisted around her legs. “Is the Caliph a typical male? Is he going to stay with the boys ’til dawn?”

“He is a serious man, not given to frivolity.” Siraj paused. Lilith seized on the thoughtful look. “What?”

“He is close to Nashwa, his first wife. He often shares his triumphs with her.”

“Good thing I’m a girl.”

“What are you thinking?”

“That I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a harem.”

There were a pair of soldiers on guard outside the door to the women’s quarters. Their dull dun uniforms were brightened by the presence of the green kerchief tied at their throats. Their eyes swept across her and dismissed her in a blink.

In a thick country accent, Lilith said, “The Caliph has sent this for his beloved wives, but the Caliph, great is his glory, will not mind if his brave and loyal soldiers sample a few of the delicacies.”

They echoed her words of praise, and Lilith held the tray while the young men helped themselves to sugar. She noticed they both had dirty fingernails. Lilith then slipped under their arms and tapped lightly on the door. The heavy panel fell shut behind her, cutting off the bass rumble of male voices.

The large room she had entered was lovely, but not grandiose. Through a whitewash of paint she could make out the faint colors of a mural that had once graced the left wall. The air was redolent with the smell of rosewater and orange oil.

Two women stood at the window, peeking through the curtains at the continuing fireworks display. Red, blue, gold, and green light washed across the fabric and their faces. One was enormously pregnant—her face was swollen and her fingers puffy. From the way her belly hung, she looked to be within days of delivery. The other woman was at that midpoint in a pregnancy when a woman seems to glow.

Curled up on a couch was a much younger woman—late teens, maybe early twenties. She was far prettier than the other two, and not just because she didn’t look like a gravid cow. She flipped the pages of a French fashion magazine with such rapidity that she couldn’t actually be absorbing anything. Her lower lip thrust out, and a frown furrowed the golden skin between her brows.

Lilith offered the food tray first to the pregnant women. They grabbed at the sweets with greedy fingers. She moved to the young wife. The girl took a small slice of melon.

Lilith took the chance. The worst it would earn her would be a slap. “I went to school in Paris,” she said softly. “Before my father sent the family home.”

“Your accent,” the girl said. “You sound Saudi.”

“I’m from Kuwait.” There was a wealth of emotion in the final word. “Have you been here long?”

“Three months.”

“You must be homesick.”

The girl started to cry.

“I’m sorry, mistress. Would you like me to leave?”