Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

I squinted at the creature. The stone figure did indeed resemble our Validen acquaintance down to the pair of arms carved out of its smooth black sides.

The eyes opened and gave off a yellowish glow. The voice it spoke in wasn't the deep gruff tone of Pazari, but a higher pitched and more feminine version of him. "Who dares compare me to that oaf?"

Ben smiled at the creature as he bowed his head. "It's been quite a while, Tijari."

The golem squinted its eyes at Ben. "Benjamin Castle? Is that you?"

Ben spread out his arms on either side of himself and inclined his head to the stone. "In the flesh."

The creature scoffed. "My god, you've aged poorly. You should take better care of yourself."

Ben burst into laughter. "And you haven't changed a bit, Tijari."

"A sitting stone rarely does," Tijari quipped as her eyes fell on me. "But who do we have here?"

Ben gestured to me. "Tijari, meet Millie Lucas, my fiancee."

I cast a scowl at him, but his pronouncement made the stone interested. "Is she? She doesn't look like much, but I like her aura. It's soft, like the summer breeze I used to feel before the earth sank."

I blinked at her. "The earth sank?"

"Oh yes, when that horrible storm came through," Tijari mused as she knitted her eyebrows together. "What a mess of sand and dirt it brought in! And all that seawater! It was enough to make a person drown and believe me, I saw many meet that fate that day."

"We were curious about some events a little closer to the present," Ben told her.

Tijari wrinkled her bulbous nose and movement made the sound of rocks grating together. "Oh well, these younger generations don't know when to listen. Now what is it you were wanting to know about?"

"About the recent trouble with the Thaqiba and in the house of Prince Sharif."

"Tall orders, especially the first one," Tijari mused as she cast a side glance at him. "And I won't be asking for the usual exchange today."

Ben lifted an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Tijari swept her eyes over the dusty basement. "As you can see, I haven't received many visitors of late. In fact, the last time someone came down here was that pathetic shopkeeper Ghabiun. He was looking for some cloth he'd misplaced and thought it might be down here. I told him he couldn't have set it down here because he was looking for a fabric that had only recently come in, at least from what I heard during his conversation with the delivery man-"

"Tijari," Ben interrupted her. "Would it trouble you if you stated your price for any information you might have for us?"

Tijari wrinkled her nose. "Well, if you insist, but I only have information about the Thaqiba. You'll have to find your own way out of that Sharif trouble."

"We'll gladly take that, but what's the price?" Ben insisted.

The stone lifted her eyebrows and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "The payment for the information will be for you to scrub my back."

Ben blinked at her. "Pardon?"

Tijari rolled her eyes. "I want you to rub my back with water, but not just any water. Only water from the ghasl will sink into my cracks and properly purify my luxurious body."

Ben pursed his lips. "That isn't an easy task, Lady Tijari. Wouldn't you rather be cleansed with the local waters?"

"No!" Her voice boomed around the basement and I heard the shopkeeper stir upstairs. Tijari gathered herself and cleared her throat. "No. Only the waters from the ghasl will work, and it must be from the first ghasl."

"That's a high price, Tijari," Ben scolded her.

She lifted her nose. "It's cheap compared to what you would need to give me in exchange for kingdom secrets."

I turned my head to and fro between the two. "What's the ghasl?"

Ben folded his arms over his chest and sighed. "They are the sacred pools out of which flows the Masdar River, the single source of fresh water for the entire island. There are three of them-"

"I don't care about the second two," Tijari interjected. "I want some water out of the first one. No other water but that will suit my delicate exterior."

I looked over her hardened body with doubt but kept my mouth shut. Ben's face told me we were in enough trouble. He stared hard at the stone. "Is this information worth such a task?"

Tijari nodded. "Very much so."

Ben sighed and dropped his arms to his side. "Then we'll bring you some, but I can hardly guarantee more than a pint."

The stone bobbed their head as much as they could. "That will be enough."

Ben turned to me. "We should go now before darkness falls."

"Sure," I reluctantly agreed, and we turned and left the stone to her dusty basement.

"And don't forget!" Tijari shouted at us as we climbed the stairs. "The first ghasl!"

"Do I want to know what trouble we just asked for?" I wondered as we meandered through the shop. Ghabiun had resumed his slumber with exuberance and his sonorous snoring drifted through the air like a chainsaw.

"Not so much danger as the impossibility of the task," Ben told me as he stepped out into the courtyard and stopped to turn to me. "As I said, the ghasl are three sacred pools from which the Masdar River flows. The waters of the salty sea are purified by the rocky shores and come out of the ground more pristine than any inland river, and so they've long been considered a gift from the gods and not something to be handed out freely."

"Meaning your barons aren't going to help us much?" I guessed.

He looked to the east behind the shop and pursed his lips. "Indeed, and I don't see us receiving a royal decree for so much as a cup."

"Much less the pint we just offered," I finished for him as I sighed. "Well, I guess we can fake our way through the guards."

The corners of his lips twitched upward. "There are only three of them, one to attend to her pool."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Her pool?"

"The guards of the ghasl are three virgins of the highest houses in Kalea. They're called the Sinless because of their pure status, and they're trained to protect the pool with the magical gifts granted them through their pure bloodlines."

My face drooped. "Magic? Powerful magic?"

"I haven't had the pleasure of being on the receiving end, but I have heard that is so."

I sighed and my shoulders slumped a little. "Well, I guess we'd better get this over with. I'm sure we'll find some way around their wily feminine and magical ways."

Ben grinned and offered me his arm. "It'll give us a chance to see a rare sight for visitors to Kalea."

"I just hope it's not the last sight we see," I quipped as I accepted his arm and we went on our way.

Ben guided us through the maze of streets in an easterly direction. My feet weren't happy with me as we scuttled down narrow alleys and pounded our way across stone streets. The vendors and shoppers had awakened from their slumber and crowded the streets with their noises and bodies. I kept close to Ben and he kept his hand close to his coin purse as we were bumped around like balls in a pinball machine.

One particularly rough woman shoved me so hard that only Ben's firm hold on me kept me from crashing to the ground. "How far are these pools?"

"We need to rent a wagon at the depot and follow the flow of the river upstream," he told me.

I was actually glad when the scent of animal manure reached my nostrils and in a few minutes we reached the edge of the capital. Large and small corrals lined the high wall that surrounded Thania, and a steady flow of animals and vehicles moved through a wide archway. The vehicles were not your typical carts and carriages, however, as their wheels had been replaced with ski sleds. Donkeys, horses, and even creatures that resembled camels, but without the extreme humpage, chewed their cud inside the wooden paddocks.

"Ben!" a voice shouted, and a rotund man of forty strolled over to us with his arms held out in a hug.

Ben grasped his arms and smiled down at the slightly shorter man. "I hoped you'd be here, Faris."

"Where else would I be?" Faris countered as he stepped back and spread out his arms on either side of him. "If I do not work then the mouths under my roof do not eat."

Ben grinned. "And how many mouths is that now?"

"Papa! Papa!"