Fantastical Ramblings by Irene Radford Page A

not take her with him when he
returned to his city.”
    “Unfortunately, his time in Jakarr was limited. Something
about this arrangement betrayed an alliance with the ruling house of... I don’t
remember where. One of his marriages I suppose. He left in somewhat of a hurry
by ship, leaving me to make arrangement for Sha’awna to travel cross country. She
needs an escort. Protection. Companionship.”
    “And help, I would imagine, if she is blind.”
    “She does quite well for one without sight. There are times
I almost think she sees without eyes.” Sera Fillia tapped her temple to
emphasize her words. Then she tangled her fingers in the sigil against evil
magic.
    <<>>
    Dawn found Katya wrestling a surly camel down to its
knees. “Hiya!” she commanded, rapping with the leather-wrapped stick the
caravan master had given her. “You will obey me, sooner or later, easy or hard,
but I am smarter than you,” she cursed the camel.
    “You may be smarter. But perhaps you are not more stubborn,”
a soft, gentle voice said from Katya’s left side.
    She started, hands reaching for weapons as heat infused her
face. Not noticing the approach of another could cost her her life. The
recharged blue bead remained quiet.
    In all the dust, noise, and general chaos of preparing a
caravan for departure, the tall, slim woman escorted by a quad of black-skinned
servants had drifted close, but not so close as to be alarming. The silent men,
clothed in elaborate kilts of gold-fringed linen, each held a corner pole of
the peaked canopy that sheltered the lady.
    The stillness of the lady’s spirit struck Katya before her
flowing white hair, white skin, white gloves, and white gown registered in her
mind.
    “Lady Sha’awna, I presume,” Katya turned to face the woman
she was charged to protect.
    The albino bowed, formally.
    Katya returned the bow, then remembered the lady could not
see. “I am Kat,” she replied. “The camel is ready for you to mount. I have
contrived a saddle with stirrups for the canopy poles as instructed.” Katya
checked over her shoulder to make sure the camel had stayed down.
    It sat calmly chewing and re-chewing its cud. Katya didn’t
trust it. She stepped to the side and behind the camel’s shoulder, gesturing
the escorts to keep Lady Sha’awna out of range.
    Just then the camel spat. The greenish gob landed in the
center of the clearing but bits of it sprayed the feet of the closest man. Seemingly,
he took no notice.
    All around them shouts and curses erupted as wagons, camels,
guards, and merchants moved into the line of march.
    “We must hurry, Lady, or we will eat the dust of those who
go before us,” Katya urged.
    “My baggage?” Lady Sha’awna asked. She did not look around,
as a sighted person would. Nor did she raise her eyelids above a slit, giving
the impression that she looked down her thin, straight nose at the world.
    “I loaded your two trunks and mine on another beast myself,”
Katya explained, all the while urging the black men forward with hand gestures.
    “Excellent. Ramir, my hat?” she asked.
    The servant behind her and to her right unfolded a white
broad-brimmed garment complete with gauzy veil from somewhere. He placed the
head covering into Lady Sha’awna’s hand without disrupting his control of the
canopy.
    With her face and hair protected from the unrelenting sun,
Lady Sha’awna flowed rather than walked to the camel. Her graceful movements
barely stirred the ever-present dust, leaving her white gown as clean as when
she arrived. Only then did Katya notice that delicate cords attached to her
wrists connected her to the bearers. Their movements, however slight, signaled
her. In a complicated ceremony, the men placed the canopy poles in their
appointed places and lifted her onto the camel’s back. Only when she was in
place did they disconnect the cords. Satisfied that she was safe and
comfortable, each man handed his cord to Katya, symbolically entrusting the
lady to