Desert Stars (38 page)

The door flap behind them parted, and
Tiera walked over to join them. Surayya shot her a dirty look
before leaving quickly with Amina. It was just as well; Mira didn’t
know if she could handle another fight between her sisters right
then.

“
So he’s gone?” said
Tiera, looking out over the desert as she stood beside
her.

“
Yes.”

Tiera nodded. “You did the right
thing.”

“
Did I?”

“
Ask yourself and see what
the answer is.”

Mira pondered it for a moment, and
realized Tiera was right. Her world was about to be shattered
forever, yet she felt no guilt or regret for anything she had done.
Was that what true honor felt like? Tiera would probably think so,
and Mira didn’t disagree with her.

“
Still,” she said softly,
“what am I supposed to do now?”

“
The same as any of us.
Make the most with what you’re given.”

That’s not a whole
lot,
Mira thought to herself. Still, Tiera
was right. God-willing, she’d manage.

God-willing.

Chapter 18

That night during his sleep shift,
Jalil had the nightmare again.

He watched himself walk into the
seedy, smoke-filled cantina and take a seat facing the stage.
Though he knew full well what would happen next, the dream played
across his mind like a holovid, leaving him powerless to change
anything. Within a few tense moments, the stage lit up and three
girls stepped into the showcases, swaying voluptuously to the heavy
electronic beat.

Sweat streaked Jalil’s forehead, and
his heart pounded as if it would burst. One by one, the girls
turned to face the audience.

Tiera was first, her tall, thin body
moving back and forth like a snake. Her skimpy outfit showed more
of her skin than Jalil had ever seen, and his knees went weak as
she began to pull it off. Their eyes met, and she gave him a smile
that was utterly unlike her.

Just before she slipped out of her
top, his view shifted, and he was staring at Michelle. With the
electronic beat pulsating all around her, she closed her eyes and
arched her back with her arms behind her head, as if in the throes
of ecstasy. Her breasts practically bulged out at him, her
tight-fitting clothes revealing far more than they hid. As her
hands slipped down her exposed midriff and began to undo the clasp
at her waist, sweat began to run down Jalil’s forehead. A wave of
guilt swept over him for staring, but try as he might, he couldn’t
avert his eyes.

Before Michelle undid the clasp, his
vision shifted again, and he was staring at Mira in the center
showcase. While the other two girls were certainly beautiful, Mira
blew them all away. Every part of her hourglass body was perfectly
proportioned, her hair long and luscious, her skin smooth and
clear. The way she swayed to the heavy dance beat evoked an almost
animal urge within him, melting his legs to water and filling him
with a throbbing, pulsating desire.

As Mira danced, the room filled with
catcalls and cheers. Hot blood rose to Jalil’s cheeks, but he sat
frozen to the spot. He struggled to free himself, but his body
would not obey him. The deep-seated hunger the girls had aroused
within him nearly overwhelmed his better nature, but he fought back
against it, knowing that this spectacle was wrong.

Before she began to disrobe, her eyes
met his own. The expression of fear and sadness he saw there made
him gasp as a tremor of shock passed through him.

Save me.

Without a word, she turned her back to
the crowd and wrapped her arms around her body, slowly hiking up
her top. The catcalls grew louder, and the men started to throw
gold coins at the foot of the showcase.

Something inside of Jalil snapped, and
he lunged forward with all his might, breaking the spell that bound
him. Within moments he was at the window, pounding on the glass
barrier between him and Mira. The cheers turned to shouts of anger,
and hands tried to tear him away, but he shook them off and struck
the glass with all the force he could manage.

Within the showcase, a door opened in
the wall behind the stage. A man with a shrouded face took Mira by
the arm, leading her away to the evil men who waited for her in the
darkness. As he pulled her offstage, she glanced frantically at
Jalil, screaming for help with her eyes.

Save me!

The hands pulled him back, all but
overpowering him. He thrashed about, but the man with the shrouded
face took Mira away.

“
NO!”

With a hair-raising shout, Jalil
pulled himself free and lunged headfirst at the
showcase.

The showcase window shattered on
impact, sending him sprawling. With the crowd of angry men close
behind him, he climbed over the broken glass and smashed down the
door on the other side.

“
Mira!”

For a few moments, he was surrounded
by nothing but darkness. Slowly, however, the space lightened until
he could see clearly.

To his surprise, he was out in the
open desert. The sky overhead was deep blue, filled with puffy
white clouds that beckoned with the promise of moisture. The air
was clear and clean, devoid of the smog that had filled Raya Dome.
The sun shone unobstructed overhead, its rays pleasant and warm on
his face.

He walked a little ways and realized
that he wasn’t in the desert, but a rich, brown land of
golden-green grass and verdant forests. Fields of untended grain
stretched to the horizon, a land of plenty untainted by man or
machine.

Jalil felt as if he were returning
from a long and tiresome journey. His body was exhausted, but a
profound sense of peace filled him. For the first time since
setting out for the Temple of a Thousand Suns, he finally felt as
if he had found his home.

Mira,
he wondered to himself.
Where is
she?
Somehow, he knew that she was near,
and that he had saved her.

As he walked, he neared what appeared
to be the Najmi camp. He saw the central windmill jutting above the
horizon, the steamy hydroponics greenhouse, the main hall and front
room, and the women’s quarters. Unlike the Najmi camp, however,
these tents weren’t sun-faded or dusty, but clean and shimmering,
as if new.

As he approached the camp,
everyone came out to greet him. Sheikh Sathi, bedecked in his
finest robes, stood at the head of the welcoming crowd, with Zayne
and
Shira
on either side. Neither they
nor any of the women wore the veil—Jalil, after all, was family. He
saw Lena and her husband; they had nearly a dozen children, but
Lena looked only a few years older and not any less beautiful than
when he’d left. Mira’s other sisters were there as well, all of
them with husbands and children. Jalil smiled to see Tiera with a
magnificent, princely man, and three strong sons at her feet. Even
little Rina, who was now a beautiful young woman, had a handsome
husband by her side. It filled him with joy to see them all so
happy.

His eyes fell on Mira last of all. She
was a mature woman now, a few years short of middle age, but had
lost none of her younger beauty. If anything, maturity had only
enhanced it. She carried a young infant in her arms, with five
other children by her side. The oldest of these was a strong little
boy, with fair white skin and golden hair.

“
Thank you for saving me,”
she said, smiling up at him.

“
You’re welcome,” Jalil
stammered.

She glanced coyly at the ground, and
in that moment, Jalil felt an overwhelming urge to take her in his
arms and hold her—not out of some shameful, animal hunger, but out
of something much deeper. More than anything, he wanted just to be
with her—to know that they would always be together.

“
Look!” shouted Tiera, and
everyone turned. A figure in the distance made his way towards
them, walking through the golden-green fields of grass. Jalil
squinted, but the late afternoon sun shone low in the sky and kept
him from making out the figure’s face.

“
Daddy!” Mira’s
fair-haired son cried with delight, running out to meet him. Mira
followed with her other children, the rest of the family laughing
with joy as they ran beside her.

The man swept up his young son and
kissed him on the cheeks. As Mira approached, he set the boy down
and embraced his wife. As they stood there in each others’ arms,
Jalil came closer, peering to get a better look at him.

When Jalil finally caught sight of the
man’s face, he gasped in shock. It was his own.

And then he was the man, returning
home from a long and tiring journey. He took his youngest child
from Mira’s tired arms, the others tugging playfully at his robes.
They looked so strong and beautiful—strong like their father, and
beautiful like their mother.

He glanced up and met
Mira’s gaze. Her rich, hazel eyes seemed to beckon to him.
Welcome home,
they
seemed to say.
Welcome home to your
family.

The feelings of shame and guilt from
the cantina were swept away by an overwhelming sense of peace, and
he knew that the nightmare would no longer torment him. Tears
filled his eyes as he looked at Mira and realized that he’d found
what he’d been searching for all his life.

Home.

* * * * *

“
Disobedient girl! Why
must you insult our guests and disgrace the family
name?”

Does it matter to you that
he nearly raped me?
Mira wanted to scream.
She held her tongue, though—her father’s study was no place to be
petty, especially now.

“
Calm down, dear,” said
her father, putting a hand on
Shira
’s shoulder. She
angrily shrugged it off.

“
No, I will not be calm!
This little whore who calls herself my daughter has sullied the
family honor and rejected every attempt to clear her name. No
daughter of mine would do such a thing—she deserves to be thrown
out of the camp for her insolence!”

The family honor is a sham
and you know it,
Mira thought bitterly to
herself. But her mother’s words stung more than she’d thought
possible; her hands began to tremble, so she clasped them in front
of her, trying to ignore the growing numbness in her
legs.

“
Now, now, dear,” said
Sathi. “We mustn’t condemn her out of anger. Wrath is no true
friend to justice.”

Relief swept through Mira’s body like
a calming ocean wave. If her father was inclined to support her,
then maybe—

“
However,” her father
said, giving her a stern glance, “your mother’s words, though
spoken in the heat of anger, still stand true.”

Mira’s stomach sank, and she felt as
if the ground had opened up beneath her.

“
You have rejected every
effort of ours to clear your good name,” her father continued.
“Rejected our kindness and longsuffering in restoring your honor.
But now, we can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to your
actions.”

“
And what are those
actions?” Mira whispered.

Her mother glared, but Sathi raised
his hand and she held her peace.

“
You left alone for the
temple with Jalil and spent more than a month alone with him. Do I
need to explain why this would bring dishonor upon us
all?”

No. But you’re
wrong.

“
And if that weren’t
enough,” shot her mother, “you’ve insulted our guests—your own
cousin, even—by turning down his generous marriage
request.”

“
He tried to rape me,”
Mira muttered, her heart pounding.

“
What?” said her
father.

“
He tried to rape me,” she
said, a little louder this time. “Ask Tiera. I was in the
greenhouse picking cucumbers when Ibrahim tried to force himself on
me.”

Her father shook his head. “I’m sorry,
dear, but we can’t prove any of that. And even if we could, Ibrahim
and Nazar are our flesh and blood; it would be dangerous to accuse
them. A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

But it still
happened!
she wanted to scream.
Does that even matter to you?

“
Therefore,” Sathi
continued, “you leave us with no choice. We must cast you out of
the camp and disown you as our daughter.”

Mira swallowed and took a deep breath
as the weight of her father’s words threatened to crush her.
Everything around her seemed to blur, like something from a
dream.

A thought came into her mind like a
shining ray of hope. “If I’m going to be exiled, can I go to Terra
2 Dome?” she asked. “To live with Aunt Nawal?”

Shira
gave a short laugh. “If you
can afford it.”

“
But—but what am I to do
then?”

Her mother sneered. “You should have
thought of that before you insulted your cousin.”

“
We’ll permit you to stay
at the camp until the next merchant convoy passes through,” her
father said. “Once you leave, where you choose to go and what you
choose to do is your own affair.”