**** Chapter Forty Four: SALAAR OF SEPHARVIM

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Chapter Forty Four: SALAAR OF SEPHARVIM

“Good morning!” Ina’s delightful voice greeted me from one end of the dining table as she saw me enter the main parlor. “Sleep well?”

“Deliciously!” I smiled. “I needed that!”

“Yes, that trip to Ducimus sounded awful.” Kabir’s sage voice emerged from one corner of the parlor where he sat in a big comfy chair. “The nerve of those witches!”

“Kabir!” Ina reprimanded him softly. “Language please, you’re in front of the

Princess!”

“Oh no, please don’t treat me as royalty.” I sat down in a chair beside Kabir. “I don’t want to be a Queen to begin with and especially not simply because I was born in a certain clan. I would so very much like to earn that honor, not just get it served to me on a platter.”

Kabir laughed and looked at me kindly – reminding me so much of Daddy just then. “I appreciate what you mean Princess but it’s your destiny. And what makes you think you haven’t earned that honor already?”

“I want you to love and trust me like you love and trust Krâl,” I confessed honestly. “That just can’t happen because of a birthmark.”

“No, it can’t.” He agreed, smiling. “But there are things far deeper than mere emotions and behavior. Things that run deep in one’s soul and blood. Krâl had to earn our love and trust because he wasn’t one of us. He was the enemy sitting on the other side of the border. He didn’t have the luxury of getting anything on a platter.” Then he paused and looked into my eyes. “But you, my dear. You are Enth! You are us!”

His honest declaration left me speechless. I felt choked as I attempted to tell him how relaxed and – I don’t know. I wasn’t even sure how I felt that time except that I wanted to hug him and thank him for being so sweet.

“Thank you, Kabir.” I managed to say and had to be content with it. No hugging lest he freak out!

“Come now, you must be starving,” Ina spoke from the kitchen door. “Have some breakfast.”

“Have you guys already eaten?” That would’ve been strange since it was still very early morning.

“No, I always eat at the marketplace café in the mornings,” Kabir said. “And Ina has issues lately.” He smiled a little playfully at his wife as he said the last part.

I looked at Ina sharply for clues. She was smiling too but hers was shy. What? My curiosity went crazy as I forced my tongue to not ask.

“Not issues,” she spoke at last. “I only get sick in the mornings.”

Ack! “You’re pregnant!” Yes, Aoife, shout it out. That’s very modest! “I mean – you’re pregnant!” This time I kept my voice conversational. “Congratulations!”

Kabir chuckled softly and stood up. “I think I’ll go see Krâl and Khazrum. They must be up by now as well.”

“Hardly,” I said. “I don’t think Demon ever sleeps to begin with and – who is Khazrum?”

“Khazrum.” Kabir looked a little confused. “The Noble Phromaz. That’s what we call him.”

Kabir smiled at me again. He seemed to understand more than I said to him. It was good to be near people who accepted me much more easily than I expected them to.

Back home, that expectation was just a dream.

“It’s a beautiful day today.” He said. “I don’t think Krâl has any plans of going back to Sikri just yet so – would you like to take a walk around Gustak, Princess?” “I’d love that!” I said.

“Good. I’ll run it by Krâl.”

“You’ve already asked me. No need to ask him now.” Right?

He hesitated a bit at that, and then said, “How about we have Salaar pick you up in an hour or so?”

An hour? It seemed as if he was buying time to still run my request by Krâl. I felt a little awkward.

“Okay.” I gave him a warm smile.

He returned my smile and dashed out of the house with a nod. I looked back at Ina.

She was sitting at the breakfast table, waiting for me.

I had never worn the kind of tops and skirts that Ina had laid out for me but I liked the style. She had fixed another dress for me the previous night and now instructed me to buy clothing my size at the bazaar when Salaar took me sightseeing.

Truth to tell, I couldn’t care less. Not that I wouldn’t like clothes of my own but I was more interested in getting to know Gustak and Salaar than worry about what I threw on my back. Speaking of which, this time I wore a combination of moss greens and ochre – all the same size as the one I had taken off.

I was admiring Ina’s flowerbeds and redbrick back yard, a serene pond of colorful Koi and water lilies. I felt as if I was in a botanic reserve full of fresh air and positive energy. I spread my arms and took a deep breath, filling my lungs and soul with all the beauty surrounding me.

“Princess Aoife?” Ina’s silky voice didn’t interfere with the tranquility but seemed an essential part of it. “The General is here.”

He was waiting for me at the main entrance, holding the reins of two horses. He wore a white cotton tunic over dark denim and had a long sword hanging casually from a brown leather belt around his waist. His thick hair gleamed silver in the fresh morning sun and his demeanor was relaxed – till he saw me coming. He then stood attentive and was about to bow when I put a hand out and begged him to please not to.

“It’s a long courtesy, takes about fifteen minutes to complete I’m sure.” I smiled at him. “A simple hello should suffice.”

He bowed his head slightly in agreement and said Good morning. I couldn’t help notice he did stifle a smile as he greeted me according to my wishes.

“So, where are we going?” I studied his face intently as he mostly kept his eyes cast down, even while talking. What a peculiarly handsome man!

“What is it that Her Majesty would like to see?” he asked.

“Who is her majesty?” I blinked. “Is someone else coming too?”

He suddenly looked up at me. His intense eyes sparkled softly as he visibly tried to hunt for a suitable answer. I realized there was something very different about the way Salaar had looked at me. I felt the presence of something warm and familiar that I had yet to decipher.

“Is there a name you would like me to address you by – Your Majesty?”

Oh. That ‘her majesty’. “Aoife sounds nice.”

“I can’t call you that. It’s not proper.”

I sighed. “Then, you choose. And it better not be his or her or whoever’s majesty, highness, or lowness whatever!”

“Very well,” he said. “Princess?”

“Okay.” That’s what everyone called me anyway. “And I’ll call you Salaar. Okay?” “Okay.” For the first time his smile broadened.

The horses Salaar had brought were well trained. They carried us smoothly through the streets. Then, there was the town itself to make the ride enjoyable.

Gustak was a place of narrow, baked clay lanes and tall, shady trees towering over those lanes. Neat, clay and wood houses sprouting from the very earth they stood on were dispersed across the green, purple and red landscape like chocolate sprinkles on rainbow ice cream scoops. Green being grass, purple being the medicinal leaves, and red being the thick foliage that lent the town its warm hues. The red foliage was not seasonal, I was told. The trees of Gustak grew red leaves year round.

As we crossed the homey neighborhood and entered a spacious meadow, I saw a black structure in the distance with a single high tower protruding from its center. As I eyed it, I noticed that a wall extended from both sides of the structure and vanished into the woods on either side.

“Salaar, what is that?” I asked pointing to the odd building.

“The citadel. Or Qila,” he answered. “It separates Enth from Richesse and the longest borderline we share with Ducimus.”

“How far does it encircle the city?”

“All the way to the beginning of Cold Woods. The region beyond the Woods was never protected by a wall or Qila since it was all part of Enth till Karu-Thren.”

“Karu-Thren?”

“That’s the natural boundary between Enth and Ducimus. The barren woodlands that mark Arela’s kingdom. But now everything is divided and splintered. Cold Woods belong to Volttus and the area beyond that is Ducimus territory. There is no Enth.”

“So that’s how the Ducimas could get into the Woods and kill –” I stopped just in time but Salaar’s expression didn’t look disturbed.

“I know.” He nodded gravely. “But they can’t launch a full scale attack from there.” He waved at the forested slopes. “The landscape doesn’t allow it. Too many ditches, woodlands and towns. Too many hurdles for an army to march in undetected and fight unhindered.”

“And if they attack from across the citadel, someone in the watch tower can alert the forces here in Gustak.” I put two and two together.

“Yes.” Salaar looked at me directly for perhaps the third time since our meeting. His eyes held a deep familiarity that I couldn’t unlock.

“Salaar – did you know my parents?” I finally asked.

“Yes.” He replied simply. But my interest mounted to immense heights.

“How?” I had so many questions suddenly. One at a time was my best bet. “How did you know them?”

“I served in the Enthonian army. Of course, I knew the Royals.”

“They tell me you were the General. Did you lead the army? Which means you must’ve seen the fall of Enth. Did my parents – but how could my parents have existed then and – how could you? How old are you, Salaar?” And there I was, firing away!

“I am old, Princess.” He said calmly. “And I served the Syhlains for as long as they needed me. I will serve you too for as long as you command me to.” There was a hint of finality to his reply that killed my next onslaught of queries.

I didn’t fear him but I think I liked him. He was very respectful and his demeanor commanded nothing less either. I had noticed it even when he was down on one knee swearing allegiance to me as his future monarch.

The meadow had merged into another district, quite different from any of the neighborhoods I’d crossed ‘till now in Gustak. It was a bustling, thriving, noisy marketplace where countless vendors bickered, sold and showed off their colorful goods. There were kiosks filled with fresh produce like fruits, vegetables, chickens and nuts. There were proper shops, built from bricks or wood, overflowing with goods ranging from needles and thread to carts and livestock. Clothes stuffed the shelves of the shops and hung from poles and railings. There were shoe stores, pottery barns, cloth dyers and roadside hair salons, shops lined with glittering metal and stone jewelry, and cafés that exhaled the delicious aroma of freshly cooked foods.

I loved it instantly!

Goods and sellers weren’t the only ingredients spilling out of that potpourri of shops. The colorful variety of buyers made it exotic. There were men dressed in knee length tunics and straight pants. Women shopped in a flurry of skirts and the traditional small blouses glowed in shocking shades of yellow, pink, red and green. Adorned with little jewelry but lots of grace, they wore their embroidered, tie-n-dyed chunris over their heads or loosely around their shoulders. But that wasn’t the only dress code. There were smart button-downs with simple skirts and denim too, their wearers roamed the streets just as comfortably as the others.

“Where is Kabir supposed to be?” I turned to Salaar.

“Around the corner.” He pointed in a direction. “He’ll probably be cutting some wood.”

“He sells lumber?”

“Furniture.”

“That’s strange. Isn’t he the Sardan of Gustak? I reckoned he might have an office of some sort – like a mayor or something.”

“It’s a small town of less than a hundred people, Princess.” Salaar smiled. “They all decide what to do with it.”