Betina Krahn - Library Of Alexandria 01 by The Book Of Seven Delights

Author:The Book Of Seven Delights [Delights, The Book Of Seven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-08T04:42:18.841000+00:00

"Need camels. Soon." Determination filled Haffe's cherubic face as he pointed emphatically to the ground. "Find treasure. Fast."

She stared at him for a moment, her stomach sinking at the thought that he was depending on the riches of her "treasure" to help him win his much-anticipated bride. She turned to Smith with a muted glare.

"See what you've done."

Halfway through the next day they reached the first village and joined a number of other travelers watering their animals… including a small caravan that had stopped to take on water. As Smith and Haffe filled their canteens and water skins, Haffe talked with the camel drivers and learned they were bypassing Ouarzazate to head directly south. Seeing an opportunity, Smith spoke with the leader, a merchant named Abu Denaü. about joining the caravan to travel toward the southern oases and the route to Timbuktu. Denaü was a leathery, hard-eyed trader who quickly named an exorbitant sum for such a service. After spirited negotiation, pointing out that they had their own animals and water and would not slow the others down, Smith and Haffe got him down to a reasonable price.

"We're doing what?" Abigail said, coming wide awake from a doze of exhaustion and batting away gnats that swarmed everything that moved.

"This makes sense, Boston," Smith declared. "If we travel with them, their camels will obliterate our tracks and Gaston will go on to Ouarzazate and search for two days before realizing we never arrived there."

She handed over the money and they left the comforts of the wadi an hour later, setting off to the south in the company of two dozen heavily laden camels.

The terrain changed the instant they crested the edge of the river valley. Beyond lay sections of dry, stony ground that alternated with drifts of sand rippled by the wind. As they settled into a steady pace, the sway of the camels ahead and behind became lulling. The temptation to close her eyes and sleep was almost overwhelming for Abigail, until Smith said they needed to abandon their hats in favor of turbans because they needed to look more like Berber traders.

She spent the better part of the next hour learning to twist and tie a turban, and as irksome and tedious as that was, the reaction of the camel drivers to her attempts was worse. They snickered and guffawed and occasionally called advice to Haffe, who persisted despite their derision. Lacking a mirror, she had to trust him when he said her final attempt was adequate. But the way Smith chewed his lip when he looked at her gave her no confidence in her newly acquired skill.

It was when she put on her burnoose for protection from the sun that the muttering among the men of the caravan went from teasing to the edge of taunting. Her donning of a predominantly male garment marked her too clearly as a foreigner and infidel. Smith told her to ignore it; women in the desert also wore them for protection from the sun.

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