Desert Stars (43 page)

Tiera pulled the flap aside and
slipped in, glancing around the room to make sure they were alone.
Satisfied, she walked over and knelt by Mira’s side.

“
I came to tell you that
Jalil wants to see you in private,” she said.

“
In private? You don’t
think he wants to—”

“
No, no,” said Tiera,
laughing softly. “It’s not at all like that. He wants to have a
talk—that’s all.”

Mira nodded and swallowed, her body
suddenly feeling a little stiff. She wondered what Jalil had
thought of her yesterday morning when she’d walked out of
breakfast—whether he’d taken it the wrong way. It wasn’t that she
hated him, just that things had changed so much since last they’d
said goodbye. Being near him was confusing—and more than a little
painful.

“
Where does he want to
meet?” she asked, rising to her feet.

“
Out behind the mesa,”
said Tiera. “Here, I’ll show you.”

They took care not to be seen,
creeping along the edge of the walls and underneath half-opened
tent doors. Once outside, they ran for the edge of the compound,
panting in the warm evening air.

“
That way,” said Tiera.
She pointed to a single set of footprints in the dusty ground; they
led around the base of the rust-red mesa to the sunward side, out
of the shadows that now partially shrouded the camp.

Mira’s heart still pounded long after
she’d caught her breath. The hot desert sun had passed its zenith
hours earlier, and now it hovered on the horizon, painting the
desert landscape in shades of red and gold. She spotted Jalil about
a hundred yards away, dressed in his ivory-colored desert robes and
red-checkered headscarf—the very same clothes that he’d worn the
day they’d last parted, there on the island surrounded by the sea.
As his head turned and their eyes met, she could almost hear the
waves crashing against the shore. Her heart fluttered as they
approached each other, him swiftly, her only a little slower. The
face that she knew so well gazed on her with an unmistakable
longing, unhidden now that the two of them were alone.

They came up to each other and stopped
short of embracing. Mira stood awkwardly, not sure what to
do.

“
You came,” said
Jalil.

“
Yes.”

He smiled, making her stomach flutter
even more.

“
It’s been a while, hasn’t
it?”

“
Yes,” Mira said
softly.

“
Has anything
changed?”

Everything,
she thought, then said it.

“
Everything.”

Jalil waited patiently for her to
speak.

“
After you left,” she
said, “Mother and Father were convinced I had disgraced the family
honor. They tried to force me into marrying cousin Ibrahim, and
when I told them I wouldn’t, they almost threw me out.”

The smile on Jalil’s face quickly
evaporated. “They did? But we never—”

“
When a boy and a girl are
alone together, remember? I tried to tell them the truth, but they
wouldn’t listen.”

“
Mira… I’m sorry. I’m so
sorry.”

She looked into his eyes and realized
that his apology was real. Her anger from the day before died
almost immediately.

“
What about you?” she
asked softly. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“
In a way, I suppose. I
found an old cousin of mine who told me the story of my family. My
birth mother and birth father are both dead, and all my other blood
relatives are scattered across the stars.”

“
I’m sorry to hear
that.”

He shrugged. “It’s just as well. I
never knew them anyway—not in the way I know all of
you.”

As he talked, they fell into step,
walking around the base of the dusty mesa. The sun dipped halfway
down the horizon, casting long shadows from the distant craggy
mountains.

“
It’s funny, though,” he
concluded. “I left the camp to find my home, only later to realize
that my home is here.”

Mira’s heart skipped a beat. “Here? In
the desert?”

“
No. Here with
you.”

He stopped and glanced over at her as
if waiting for an answer. Her breath caught in her throat, and a
shiver ran down the back of her neck like electricity.

“
Mira, I wanted this
chance to talk with you because I feel I need to apologize. When I
left you at Nawal’s doorstep, I know it wasn’t on the best of
terms. It seems the family’s put you through hell for that, and I
know it must have hurt personally as well. So Mira, all I wanted to
say is, I’m sorry.”

A lump rose in Mira’s chest, and any
residual anger in her heart shattered and dissipated, as if it had
never been. She looked at the sincere, earnest expression on his
face, and knew that she’d forgiven him.

But at the same time, an awful sinking
dread welled up in her stomach. She knew he wasn’t the only one at
fault for what had happened—not in the least. Memories of that
awful night flooded back to her, making her cheeks burn. It all
seemed so long ago, yet all the guilt came back in full force,
threatening to crush her under its weight.

“
I forgive you,” she said
softly. “And Jalil?”

“
Yes.”

“
I—I’m sorry
too.”

He looked at her for a moment,
blinking. After all he’d shared with her, the simple one line
apology seemed woefully insufficient, but to open herself
completely to him, with no secrets or boundaries… it filled her
with a fear sharper than any she’d ever felt. And yet, she knew
that ultimately, nothing else would set her free.

We all live in the world
of our own choosing.

“
What I did was wrong,”
she said, her emotions gushing. “Everything. That last night, in
the glass-roofed hotel—”

“
It wasn’t your
fault.”

“
But I was the one who
made it happen. I was the one who acted shamefully. I was the one
who shattered your trust, and Jalil—I’m sorry. So, so
sorry.”

Before she knew what was happening,
she was in Jalil’s arms, uncontrollable tears streaming down her
face.

“
It wasn’t your fault,” he
repeated, rubbing her back. “Your parents were behind it all. They
put you up to it.”

“
But I chose to listen to
them. I chose to follow through with their shameful
plan.”

“
It doesn’t matter.
Whatever happened, whatever we did, it’s all behind us
now.”

Neither of them said anything for a
few moments. She started to sob as Jalil held onto her, his touch
saying so much more than words.

“
Do you still love me,
Mira?”

The question caught her a little off
guard, but as the guilt of the past few months slowly cleared from
her mind and heart, she realized that she did.

“
Yes,” she answered,
barely a whisper. “I’ve loved you ever since we were
young.”

“
Since we were
children?”

“
Yes.”

“
I love you, too,” he said
softly. “Ever since we were young. I didn’t realize it until after
I’d left, but it was the same for me.”

As Mira cried, her tears turned from
tears of guilt and sorrow to tears of joy. She didn’t know how to
describe it, except that she felt clean—cleaner than she had since
she and Jalil had left for the Temple of a Thousand Suns. If it
hadn’t been for Jalil holding her, she would have collapsed from
dizziness. And yet, nothing had ever felt so right.

“
They’re going to marry us
soon,” Jalil said. “Is that what you want?”

She looked up at him and smiled
through her rapidly fading tears.

“
Yes.”
Oh yes!

“
And afterward, I’ll take
you away from this place, and we can build a new life together,
somewhere among the stars.”

Suddenly, he was leaning in toward
her, with her head tilted back. He leaned in a little further, and
their lips touched. Shivers ran like bolts of electricity through
her arms and fingers, and as they kissed, all their worries and
cares seemed to fade into the distance.

“
Masha’allah,” she
whispered.

“
Yes,” said Jalil.
“Masha’allah.”

They gazed at each other for a few
minutes before he let her go.

“
So they’re going to marry
us,” he said. “And after that—Mira, you have to help me get them
away. Every moment we stay on this planet, we’re all in
danger.”

She nodded silently, not sure what to
say.

“
I know this must sound
crazy,” he continued. “I don’t expect you to understand what I’m
saying—hell, even two months ago I wouldn’t have believed it. But
you must believe me—you
must.
”

“
I believe you,” she said
softly.

“
You do?”

“
Yes.”

A grin spread across his face, and he
took her hand and squeezed it.

“
I love you.”

They came together and kissed again,
this time with more confidence. Mira ran her fingers through
Jalil’s hair beneath his red-checkered headscarf, and he gently
rubbed her back, turning her muscles to water. Yet for all their
passion, it didn’t feel wrong—far from it.

“
Masha’allah,” she
whispered, pausing to catch her breath.

“
Yes,” he said, smiling.
“Whatever Allah wills.”

* * * * *

Jalil walked hand in hand with Mira
back to the camp. The sun had set, and the stars and satellites
were already starting to come out across the purple twilight sky. A
soft breeze slowly dissipated the heat of the day, pleasant on his
skin. With Mira by his side, the rocky desert landscape seemed
renewed, and he looked on it with new eyes, noticing all the
familiar details as if for the first time. Mira squeezed his hand,
and he smiled.

At that moment, a deep rumbling noise
came from the camp. Jalil frowned; it sounded like a caravaneer,
except almost ten times louder. But that would only make sense
if—

As realization dawned on
him, the
Bridgette One
made its vertical ascent, hovering for a few seconds over the
ground before shooting off across the sky.

“
No!” he
shouted.

But it was too late. As the shuttle
disappeared into the fading twilight, a horrible sinking feeling
grew in his stomach.

“
What’s wrong?” said Mira.
“Jalil—Jalil!”

“
Why?” he shouted into the
sky, as if demanding an answer of the universe.

“
Was that Michelle? Was
she not supposed to go?”

“
No,” he said, collapsing
to his knees. “She—she was supposed to—”

“
It must have been
Mother,” said Mira, her face reflecting Jalil’s apprehension.
“She’d said something about trying to convince Michelle to
go.”

Then we’re
stranded,
Jalil thought despondently to
himself.
The world is about to end, and
we’re stranded on it.

Chapter 21

As a little girl, Mira had often
wondered what her wedding day would be like. She’d imagined herself
wearing a finely embroidered black dress, with gold and silver
coins dangling from her hems, jingling as she walked. She’d
imagined her father and mother and all her sisters, dressed in
their finest clothes, ululating with wild, thrilling cries as she
came forward to meet the groom. He would be a princely man, dressed
in robes of pure white with a magnificent sword at his belt and a
gold plated rifle strapped to his back. Before exchanging vows,
their eyes would meet, and it would be like eternity reflecting
upon itself.

She never imagined it would be like
this.

The day dawned with a few
small convoys of close relatives riding into the compound, cheering
and ululating as they fired their rifles into the air. The
wuft wuft
of the camp’s
plasma cannons answered, shots arcing high across the sky before
falling to the ground miles away and turning the sand to
glass.

All that was to be expected, of
course. But inside the tents, everything seemed to be going wrong.
The sun was barely a full hand over the horizon, and her sisters
were helping her put on her wedding robes—the same ones that Lena
had worn. In their haste to prepare for the wedding, her parents
obviously hadn’t had time to make special ones for her.

“
It looks fine,” said
Amina, rolling her eyes as Surayya made another adjustment to the
fabric at Mira’s waist.

“
Oh, hush,” Surayya shot
back. “This is Mira’s special day. Everything has to be
perfect.”

“
Stars of Earth, you act
like you’re her mother.”

The comment made Mira
cringe, though Amina hardly seemed to notice. If this were a normal
wedding, her mother
would
be the one helping her with the dress.