Desert Stars (5 page)

“
Oh,” said Surayya, “but
what about Lena? I thought—”

“
Lena and Mazhar are only
staying for insurance. If Jalil leaves—and I hear he has a mind
to—Father’s agreed to pass the inheritance on to them. That’s why
he wants to marry one of us off to Jalil as soon as
possible.”

Mira’s heart leaped in her
chest.

“
You know,” said Amina,
turning to face her, “I think you two would go well together. You
should marry him.”

Mira’s cheeks flushed again, but she
couldn’t suppress a smile. “You truly think so?” she
asked.

“
Truly.”

“
But—but what about Tiera?
Jalil spends all his time with her. Do you think—”

“
Tiera hates all of us,”
said Surayya, her lips turned down in contempt. “All she wants is
to leave this place.”

“
She does?”

“
Sure. Can’t you see it in
the way she acts?”

“
Anyhow,” said Amina, “you
don’t need to worry; Jalil doesn’t have eyes for her.”

Mira bit her lip while Amina stepped
forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be embarrassed.
Jalil is quite a catch—you should talk with Mother and make it
happen.”

Mira silently nodded, her heart still
pounding in her chest. Ever since she was a little girl, the
thought of leaving her home to marry a stranger had absolutely
terrified her. To marry someone she loved, while staying in her
father’s tent—it almost seemed like too much to hope
for.

At that moment, the door
to the cooking tent parted. The three girls turned just as
Shira
stepped inside.

“
Girls, girls, girls!”
their mother shouted as she waddled over to the washing table.
“When are you ever going to be done with these dishes? Aie! The
more of you I put on a job, the slower you work.”

“
Sorry, Mother,” said
Surayya, a bit sheepishly. “We were—”

“
Stop yapping and get back
to your chores! Our guests will be eating again in less than two
hours, and I don’t want them choking on the remains of the last
meal.”

She turned to Mira, hands at her hips.
“Mira, dry off your hands and come with me.”

Mira looked uneasily at Amina and
Surayya, but they had already returned to their chores. Her hands
shook nervously, and she carefully wiped them down with the vacuum
sponge, doing her best to reclaim as much water as she
could.

“
Why are you moving so
slowly, girl?”
Shira
nagged. “I don’t have all
day.”

“
Yes, Mother.”

“
Where are you taking
her?” Surayya asked, glancing up from her work.

“
Mira and I are going to
have a little chat,” their mother said. “It doesn’t concern
you.”

“
Is it about Jalil?” Amina
asked. Mira suddenly wanted to die.

“
I said it doesn’t concern
you,”
Shira
bellowed. “Now see to your
work—and be quick about it!”

It’s about Jalil,
Mira thought woefully to herself.
She was eavesdropping the whole time—she probably
heard everything.

“
Well,”
Shira
said, “are you ready or not?”

Mira carefully set the vacuum sponge
back in its sheath and took a deep breath.

“
Yes,” she said, her voice
barely more than a whisper.

* * * * *

“
You mind telling me what
this is all about?” Tiera asked as she followed Jalil to the dirt
embankment at the edge of the compound.

Jalil glanced over his shoulder and
motioned for her to be quiet. “Shh! The others can’t know we’re
here.”

Tiera rolled her eyes and followed him
over the embankment to the other side, far enough away that no one
could eavesdrop on their conversation. Together, they sat down in
the shade, backs against the dusty slope so that they were hidden
from view.

The sky overhead was cloudless and
perfectly blue from horizon to horizon. A warm breeze blew across
Jalil’s face, tickling his skin with a few stray grains of sand.
The rust-red landscape had changed since the storm, but he still
recognized the familiar line of the mountains on the horizon, as
well as the wind-carved boulders and outcroppings that surrounded
the camp: pillars of black and red stone, standing watch like
ageless sentinels over a place that felt, almost, as if it could be
his home.

Almost, but not quite.

“
I’m sorry I didn’t tell
you before,” he began, “but I couldn’t risk letting anyone discover
my plans until now.”

“
What? That you want to
leave the camp once the wedding is over?”

Jalil’s jaw dropped. “How—how did
you—”

“
It’s not too hard to
figure out,” she said. “And honestly, you have been a bit more
aloof than usual these last few days.”

He glanced over his shoulder again,
just to make sure no one had overheard. “Well, promise not to tell
anyone, okay?”

“
Sure. Where do you plan
on going, anyways?”

Jalil reached underneath his shirt and
pulled out the pendant he wore around his neck. “Do you know what
this is?” he asked, holding it out to Tiera.

She took it and examined it closely
for a few moments. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s the necklace you had
on you when Father found you out in the desert, isn’t
it?”

“
More than a necklace,” he
said, taking it back. “It’s a memory chip full of data that I’ve
never been able to access. Data from my home, Tiera—perhaps from my
birth parents.”

“
Great. How does that
figure into you leaving?”

“
Can’t you see?” he said,
stuffing the pendant back under his shirt. “I
have
to know what’s on this memory
chip, Tiera—I absolutely
must.
But no trader that’s passed through the camp has
been able to read it. If I stay here, I’ll never uncover the
truth.”

Tiera nodded. “So where do you plan to
go?”

Jalil turned away from her and glanced
out over the reddish brown horizon. His body stiffened, the way one
stiffens in a dream just before coming back to the waking world. He
hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to give voice to his true
intentions—as if afraid that by naming them, they would somehow
lose their power.

“
Where are you going?”
Tiera asked again. “You can trust me—I won’t tell.”

“
To the temple,” he
whispered.

Tiera frowned. “The
temple?”

“
Yes—the Temple of a
Thousand Suns.”

She stared at him for a few moments,
uncomprehending. When realization finally struck, her eyes grew
wide and her jaw dropped open in shock.

“
Are you
serious?”

“
Yes.”

“
But—but that’s the
holiest shrine in the known universe! It’s the Noble Sanctuary, the
Center of All Creation, the—”

“
I know.”

“
But why?” she asked.
“Some people spend their whole lives trying to make the
pilgrimage—even Father hasn’t been there yet.”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know
if I’m worthy enough to make the pilgrimage, but I do know one
thing: the Holy Archives are at the temple, and they contain all
the knowledge and wisdom of Old Earth. If anyone can read the data
stored in my pendant, it’s those who keep the Holy
Archives.”

“
But how do you know
they’d help you? How do you know they’d even care?”

“
The temple is dedicated
to the memory of Earth,” he said, “but it’s also dedicated to the
last great hope of the patriarchs, that their children would one
day inhabit a thousand worlds and spread across the universe. I’m
from one of those other worlds, Tiera, even if I don’t know which
one. If the temple is still dedicated to that hope, then I know
I’ll find someone to help me.”

Tiera stared at him for a moment,
shock gradually giving way to admiration. “You would travel to the
other side of the world just to find your home?”

“
More than that,” Jalil
said softly. “I would leave this world and travel to the
stars.”

Tiera said nothing for several
moments. The breeze idly tossed a strand of hair dangling from her
hastily-tied bandana. Jalil shifted uneasily—he saw, in her eyes, a
light that he hadn’t seen before, a light that he’d rarely seen in
anyone.

“
Take me with you,” she
said. Her voice, though soft, was as fierce as Jalil had ever heard
it.

“
Take you?” he asked.
“Away from the camp?”

“
Yes. Wherever you go, I
want to go, too.”

“
But—but Tiera, they need
you here.”

“
Like hell they do,” she
hissed. “I do twice the work of any of
Shira
’s
daughters and have yet to get any thanks for it. I want nothing
more than to get as far away from all of them as
possible.”

“
You mustn’t say that,”
said Jalil. “Mother
Shira
and your half-sisters are
good people.”

“
I wish I could still
believe that,” Tiera muttered as she glanced away.

“
Besides,” Jalil
continued, “we couldn’t do the pilgrimage by ourselves. What would
the others think? When a boy and a girl are alone—”

“
I know, I know. Satan is
the third one with them. I don’t believe that for one second. We’re
responsible enough to make our own decisions, aren’t we? We’re not
fated to break the rules just because no one else is around to keep
us in line.”

“
I know, but what about
our honor? If word got out—”

“
What is honor, Jalil?”
Tiera said. “Where does it come from?”

“
I, uh,” Jalil stuttered.
“It comes from, uh—”

“
Right here,” she said,
jabbing him in the chest. “It’s right here, and nowhere else. So
what if the others gossip about us? Let them! We’ll both know the
truth, and that’s honor enough for me.”

For a moment, neither of them said
anything. Jalil swallowed and took a deep breath.

“
I want to take you with
me, Tiera—I really do. But—”

“
But what?”

Jalil sighed. “What about Zayne?
You’re her last surviving child; if we both left her, she would be
devastated.”

Tiera opened her mouth as if to speak,
but closed it again without saying anything.

“
I need to leave the camp
in good hands,” Jalil continued. “What will the others do when the
windmill needs repairing, or the caravaneers need servicing? I
can’t think of any better hands than yours.”

“
Mazhar’s taking over
soon,” Tiera muttered. “He’ll see to all that.”

“
But Tiera, Mother
needs
you.
”

She bit her lip and looked up at him
with pleading eyes. To his surprise, she seemed as if she would
almost cry.

“
There’s nothing left for
me here,” she said. “Nothing.”

“
Don’t worry,” he said,
putting a hand on her arm. “You won’t be here forever. I’m sure
Sathi will find you a—”

“
A husband? Not if
Shira
has anything to do with it. She probably wants me
to die an old maid. And even if he did, what makes you think I want
to marry?”

Jalil didn’t know what to say. Tiera
rubbed her eyes and looked out over the rocky desert plain, the
wind toying with the hair that had spilled out of her loosely tied
headscarf.

“
I’m sorry, Tiera.
I—”

“
No,” she said, rising to
her feet. “You do what you have to do. One way or another, I’ll get
free of this place.”

“
But not just yet,” Jalil
said, rising hastily. “Please—not until things have settled down a
bit. Promise me that.”

She turned toward him and narrowed her
eyes, hands placed squarely on her hips. For a moment, Jalil
worried she was upset with him, but a grin spread across her face,
setting him at ease.

“
Fair enough,” she said,
“but just because I’m giving you a head start, don’t think you’ll
be rid of me so easily. Wherever you go, I’m sure our paths will
cross again someday.”

“
God-willing,” said Jalil,
clapping his hand on her shoulder. “God-willing.”

* * * * *

Mira’s mother led her through the
darkened corridors of the camp, moving so quickly that she nearly
had to run to keep up. The smell of roasting meat and vegetables
mingled with the thick, stuffy humidity of the kitchen huts, making
her clothes feel sticky.

“
W-where are we going?”
she asked.

“
Somewhere
private,”
Shira
answered, tightening the
grip on her hand.

Please don’t let me be in
trouble,
Mira prayed.
Please don’t let her be angry with me.