Mirage by Somaiya Daud

Author:Somaiya Daud
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Flatiron Books

20

I slept soundly that night. I could hear the whistle of wind through the canyon, and the babbling of our courtyard fountain, and a hundred other sounds of a large estate settling into sleep. Sounds largely absent from my wing of the Ziyaana. I woke refreshed before the sun had risen and the palace woke. I didn’t bother waking Tala, and dressed on my own. She would likely have a fit when she realized I’d gone out of my quarters in the simple steel-gray qaftan, with little jewelry, and my hair twisted into a simple braid.

I donned a cloak and made my way through the palace and toward the temple.

The Dihyaan temple was austere when compared to the rest of Ouzdad. Its entrance was an archway carved with script from the Book, borne up by two simple white pillars. The courtyard was laid with simple gray and green marble tiles, with a single stone fountain at its center, and ringed with benches and reed mats. It was lined on three sides by corridors, whose white columns were capped with dark wood. The roof tiles were a bright, cheery green and stood out even in the murky dawn light. It was a legendary structure. Half its walls had been hauled from the wreck of an ancient civil war and to the moon’s surface.

There were no icons here, no murals depicting our leaders or followers. The walls and pillars were carved with old script, verses from our Book, reminders of Dihya and peace and faith. I heard the patter of bare feet against stone, the whisper of robes, the rising murmur of people in prayer. On the other end of the courtyard stood a pair of dark wooden doors, carved with fruit bearing trees: the doors to the zaouia. On the other side of those doors anyone who needed shelter would find it, anyone who needed a place to rest or alms or help would be welcome.

I smelled incense, freshly burned, and the clear sharp scent of the temple itself that emerged from stone and people and worship. I couldn’t make myself enter the temple proper, so I took a seat in the courtyard beneath the awning, and breathed.

For the first time in months I felt something like peace settle over me. The tightness in my chest, in my muscles, unwound. When I exhaled it felt as though a hundred small pebbles fell away. For a sliver of a moment I wasn’t Maram or Amani. I was a girl in a temple, filled with nothing but want and expectation. The sun was rising, and the light carved its way across the courtyard, splitting it between light and shadow. A bird perched on the curved edge of the fountain, warbling at the water as though it might warble back.

A ringed hand landed on my shoulder. I jerked to a stand in surprise and spun around to find Furat on the other side of the bench. Her hair curled loose over her shoulders, as plain as mine, and in the same simple cut of qaftan that I’d donned.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.