"That was the moment I first realized there were people of Qushmarrah who wereless than enchanted with our efforts."
"And?"
"A more dramatic incident occurred in the Hahr day before yesterday. TheDartars rounded up eighteen ground-level members. They had been denouncedanonymously. The Dartars did not bother interrogating them. They just executed them there in the street. Some of the onlookers cheered."
"I see."
"Do you? Some of the brethren have been feathering ..."
"I said I see." The General reflected for several minutes. "Khadifa, your father has just had another of his spells and thinks he's dying again. Youround up your brother and cousins and have them here later tonight so they canbe given their legacies."
"Yes sir."
"Fa'tad is in the street out there?"
"Yes sir."
"Help me to the door. I want to see him."
"Is it worth the risk, sir?"
"Is he going to recognize a man who's been dead for six years?"
He did not get his fuzzy glimpse of the enemy. Fa'tad al-Akla and his tribesmen, and the Herodian infantrymen, had gone. Char Street had become itsnormal twilight self.
"What's this?" Aaron asked, looking at the concoction Laella had set beforehim. He shifted on his cushion. The aches of work and the terror of the afternoon were fading. His question was one of honest inquiry, not complaint.
"What does it look like?"
"Haifa yellow squash with stuff baked inside it."
"Can't put anything past you when you put your mind to it, can I?"
Arif said, "I don't like this stuff, Mom." Stafa echoed him immediately. The younger boy was just into that stage.
"You haven't tried it yet."
Aaron didn't think he would like it, either, but it turned out to be good. The boys did right by their portions, too.
Laella had filled the partially baked squash halves with a mix of chopped andsliced vegetables, and slivers of mutton, in a heavy, spicy brown sauce. There were mushrooms and nut meats in there, too. And dates promised for afterwardfor boys who ate their supper.
Old Raheb worked on her meal without speaking. Hers had been cooked longer so meat and vegetables would be easier prey for toothless gums. Tonight sheworked every mouthful twice as long as usual. Aaron pretended not to notice.
Nobody could get quite as fixated as Laella's mother. If one of her fixationswon an audience it could turn into years of high drama.
Look at Taidiki. She had been mourning Taidiki since Dak-es-Souetta. He mightnot have broken had she not been there wailing all the time.
Aaron needed distracting himself. "What do you think of it, Mish?"
Tamisa, Laella's fourteen-year-old sister, completed the household. For a timeafter Dak-es-Souetta there had been other sisters. They had gotten married oneby one. The latest had gone just before Taidiki's mad gesture.
Maybe that had contributed to Taidiki's despair. All those sisters to dowryand no other relatives to soften the blows to his patrimony.
Raheb did not mourn her husband, did she? He had fallen at Dak-es-Souetta, hadn't he? But she hadn't so much as mentioned his name since moving in here.
Tamisa said, "It's all right." Howling praise. About as definite a statementas anyone could get out of her these days. She had changed over the eightyears Aaron had known her. Sometimes he felt vaguely guilty about that, thoughhe did not see how he could be responsible. Too much time spent close to hermother, he thought.
He worried endlessly that Arif and Stafa would drift down the same pathway toa life of quiet despair. He worried about his sons too much, he knew. Childrensurvived childhood. He had. It was being grown-up that was lethal.
Laella said, "When we're done I want to go see if I can do anything forReyha."
"I thought you might."
"Mish can clean up."
"Of course."
"We've known each other a long time. We went through labor together. There wasstill fighting in the streets."
"I know."
"We lay there holding hands and listening to people killing each otheroutside, not sure that somebody wouldn't break in and do something to us."
"I know." There was a part of Laella that could not forgive him for havingbeen a prisoner of the Herodians on that critical day, unreasonable as sheknew that to be.
"Zouki came only a minute after Arif. It was the last day of the war. The dayAla-eh-din Beyh broke the barrier and killed Nakar the Abomination."
"I know." He knew the preamble was all because he would have to take her ifshe was to go see Reyha. And he loathed Reyha's husband, Naszif.
Naszif was an ironwright and prosperous. The Herodians had plenty of work formetalworkers and gave Naszif all he could handle. Aaron and Naszif had been inthe same artillery engineers troop. Aaron was convinced that Naszif hadbetrayed them during the siege of the Seven Towers in Harak Pass.
Three of the towers had been reduced already. There was never a doubt that theHerodians would break through. The defenders were supposed to buy time untilthe defeated of Dak-es-Souetta, the new levies, and the allies could gather onthe Plain of Chordan. The lords of Marek, Tuhn, and Caldera were sendingseventy thousand men.
But someone heeded either cowardice or the Herodian offer of rewards and unsealed the tower's postern. The treachery advanced the Herodian causesufficiently that they were able to reach the Plain of Chordan in time to keepit all from coming together.
"When we heard, we both had the same crazy idea. Name our sons Peace," Laellasaid.
"I know."
"Why don't you like Naszif? You were in everything together."
"That's why. I know him." He had told no one what he believed about Naszif.
Not even Laella.
"But ..."