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23 Blooming: Darra, Laylah and Ruqayyah set out on their journey south to Tel Yuli. The first day, they passed a party of a dozen men on horseback, headed north. These men looked at the three women carefully as they passed; Laylah got the impression that they were searching for someone. This encounter made the women glad to have their desert garb. However, they decided to go one step further by disguising Laylah's pale skin with mud until they could find plants suitable for dying her skin more permanently.
25 Blooming: They finally found suitable plants. Laylah dyed her arms, face and neck, and cut more plants to have a supply for later. (That evening, she discovered that the dye would not come off easily, so she covered herself more thoroughly.)
They reached Quikara just before the gates were closed for the night. Ruqayyah asked a guard about inns that would allow entertainers to perform for their room and board; he suggested "The Sundered Shield," and gave directions. The Shield's innkeeper decided that their performance was adequate to cover their expenses. (This is Ruqayyah's standard travel practice, and her companions decided to adopt it, being performers themselves.)
While performing, they noticed one unusual patron: a rather ugly man, with old burn scars on his face and hands, white-streaked hair, and dressed all in red. He was courteously attentive to Ruqayyah's dancing, but did not speak to her.
26 Blooming: The travelers rose and left town early. Laylah saw the man in red again, riding a horse out of the city in the direction of Tel Yuli, and pointed him out.
The traffic between Quikara and Tel Yuli included large numbers of Desert Men. Darra saw camels for the first time.
Mid-morning, Ruqayyah saw a small party of five lizard men traveling towards Tel Yuli, at some distance from the road (where their natural camouflage hid them from casual view). She approached and accosted them, asking why they were so far from their desert home. The leader, a shaman named Zharka, was returning from a quest to see the "big water" (the River Yangar). Ruqayyah tried to explain that an even larger body of water [the Great Sea] existed far to the north, but having never seen it herself, she had some difficulty translating Laylah and Darra's accounts. While she described the "bigger water," Zharka started a mystic dance in order to talk to his "old ones" and ask their advice about what to do with this new knowledge. He had a fit and fell to the ground. When he recovered, he stated that, "this big water not place for lizard men to go to." Ruqayyah, however, wants to see it ("I want to see everything!"), and promised to come tell Zharka about it when she had. When he had rested, Zharka discovered that Ruqayyah was in training to become a "leader of ritual," as he was. In parting, he advised her to "Dance well--please your old ones."
Just after noon, they reached Tel Yuli. Ruqayyah found her friend Fatimah, the young daughter of the camel-trader Sbaih, in order to ask about inns. After being introduced to Fatimah and her pet cats, Darra and Laylah left to find lodgings and a place to meditate on their next step.
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© 1999 Timothy E. Emrick. | This page last revised 8/5/99; time@neu.edu