Childhood Demons Ch. 05

"Hold still for me, and I will try to soothe you back here. I see that you have been used a little hard lately."

He nodded rather sadly and he flinched at first, but the cream that she put there did finally make him feel better, and she was very good in how she applied it so that he sighed in spite of himself.

A significant portion of the gold lying around was his he claimed, and from what he'd told her, she understood and agreed that it likely was. From her questions, she learned that they were twins. They looked alike to a degree but that was as far as it went and in any event, they were very lovely to A'ishah's eyes, once they were clean.

They were twenty and had been on their way back to a village not far from where they were from and that they'd gotten lost a couple of weeks before. The ones who had captured them had used him, both for their pleasure as well as to bait the trap for any travellers out here. They hadn't done much to Zahra, thinking that she could be sold to a brothel for a good amount.

As A'ishah heard more of it, she set about seeing what sort of meal she could put together for when Zhaeri returned, hopefully with Yasmikha at least. Kasim began to gather up what gold that he could find that he thought was his own. When she noticed it, A'ishah told him to gather up what he thought was his sister's as well, and Zahra began to weep then.

When she understood why, A'ishah told them to gather up all of it if they wanted and she explained things as best she could as she worked. "I don't know what can be done for you both; I find that I am at least a little hopeful. When the others return, there may be five of them and at least three will be large. Do your best not to look too frightened and above all, do NOT try to run away and please – let me do the talking for you, at least at first.

If all that I think there are come, then two, I know well. There could be a large man with light hair also. I know a little of him and I do not think that he would want to harm you. The others, I know nothing of, but I cannot think that you would be harmed. I see some of your difficulty and I will do as I can to help – and it needs no more than a little thanks, that is all."

She looked at some of the jewellery lying around, "That is yours as well?"

Seeing Kasim's nod, A'ishah smiled, "then please bring some of it over and come to me. I think - now that I know more - that I want to see some of it on your fine bodies, if for no other reason that to hopefully see you feeling a little better."

She chose some out of what she saw and she adorned them both by placing jewelled collars on them because she knew enough of their kind to know that it was the way that things were done by them and she searched until shoe found the gold chains which were to go around their narrow waists.

A'ishah grinned to see that they were indeed feeling much better for it and she held still as they insisted while they adorned her body in the same manner.

"You are not one of us," Zahra smiled as she fastened a small collar around A'ishah's neck and adjusted the way that the heavy pendant lay over the Bedouin's small breasts, "But I see enough of you now to know that you would wants this. Many women - if they had the means to own something like this, might love to wear it, but only their men - if they had one worth it - might ever see it.

It is not our way. We live most often without things to hide our bodies, after a point in the evening, most times. We live wearing things such as this, just as you knew of it and to us, you are alike to ourselves."

A'ishah was touched. She only wanted a mirror, more than anything right then. But the pair told her that she looked very good this way.

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Zhaeri searched a little, and it was not long before she felt Yasmikha's thoughts telling her that they'd seen her, so she stood near some rocks to get out of the wind and looked up the slope. The way was difficult to see, with clouds of fog rolling through most often, so she just waited.

After a time, she heard some horses and then she could make out a little conversation and she felt some relief. When she saw them all, she stood and stared for a moment before she pulled her wits about her and stepped out to greet them.

After what had to be one of the strangest meetings for at least a few of them, Zhaeri spoke of what had happened on the way and where she'd left A'ishah.

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A'ishah saw them coming, just a group of indistinct figures on ghostly-looking horses in the rolling fog as the light of the day began to fade. She had time only to look back and call to the ones inside that the ones that she waited for were almost there. When she turned back, Zhaeri was right there, picking her up to hold her and hug her so that A'ishah's feet dangled in the air.

"I know now that I can never be far from you, A'ishah," she sighed with her eyes closed and a smile on her lips, "Poor Koåhn must be in agony, if she feels anything like the way that I do to be away from you."

A'ishah kissed Zhaeri and then hurriedly whispered what had passed in the time that Zhaeri was gone. After only one look at the two by the fire, she nodded and turned to go back out.

"Tell them plainly with as little fuss as you can that there are two ... demons among us."

"Demons?" A'ishah repeated, "How is that worth no fuss at all?"

Zhaeri began to chuckle, "I'm sure that by now, you can take anything at all in your stride, my love. I will tell the rest not to frighten our new guests." She was still smiling as she pointed, "I left you wearing clothes. I come back and you are as we love to see you most - and you even wear such finery!"

She grinned a little in spite of herself as she rolled her eyes, "You always tell us that you have lived a completely unremarkable life – and none of us understand it at all when we hear that."

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"It is warm in here," Zahra remarked with a look toward Kasim.

He nodded, "I have lost the chill from outside. Now I begin to sweat."

"Well take the blankets off then," A'ishah smiled, "and if you do that, then I will as well.

But I think we should keep them near us all the same. Zhaeri has told me that there will be four others coming back with her. Her sister is one and that lovely girl is large and strong, much more so than Zhaeri.

As well, there will be a large soldier with her and he brings two who she says are friends from his youth. I am to say that they are a sort of demon – a male and a female – who wish to live here."

The statement caused the pair to become nervous and agitated. "There are many kinds of demons, I have heard," Zhara said, "What sort are these ones?"

A'ishah shrugged, "I cannot say. I've never seen even one like that. What these are, I was not told, but I know Zhaeri and she would not want me in danger. I trust her and so must you, I must guess."

"You travel with strange companions," Kasim said, "That one ..."

Zahra wanted to hear what had happened and Kasim spoke of it while they began to cook what they could. Zahra listened closely and at the end, she looked across to A'ishah. "So you came here with a demon? Why did she not kill you? Isn't that what they do?"

A'ishah shook her head, "Zhaeri is no demon and I love her. I cannot think that there is much to fear, or she would have told me."

They heard the horses at the entrance not long after and they all looked. As the riders came in one at a time, a little fog swirled in around each one for a moment. It added to the effect, but as soon as they were off the horses and on the ground, Zhaeri pulled the newcomers into a huddle.

"There are men coming," she said, "They are some miles distant as yet and they march, most of them. Some few are on horseback and there are other horses drawing wagons."

"How many, Zhaeri?" Yasmikha asked and they all paused to look at Zhaeri, who stood in thought for a few moments.

"One hundred and eight," Zhaeri said when she looked up. "I can do a little to hide us, but I don't want to give up this nice warm cave if they come this far."

"They will go up the same path that we came down," Kari remarked, "I think they'd go to reinforce my unit, not knowing that there are none alive up there. The wagons carry food, clothing and ammunition. If they think to go up that path dragging the wagons, they're in for a hard lesson."

He sighed, "I'm afraid that at some point, not far up, the men will become the pack animals, carrying the supplies on their backs. Horses can't go up that way pulling wagons."

Kari looked out into the fog, "They should be taking the lower road up. It's some distance farther to go, but the trip up is at least possible. I guess it depends on the brightness of the officers."

He looked back, "Or, they know that they'd be ambushed on that road and take this way instead."

There was no reply. When he looked, he saw Zhaeri standing in a strange posture, as though her head hurt or something of that nature. He was about to step over to ask when Yasmikha stopped him.

"My sister bends her thoughts on the conditions outside. She will be alright, only give her a moment."

As though in answer to her, they heard the sudden rush of the wind outside and when they looked out, they saw that the wind was coming straight down the mountain and blowing away from them across the snowfields out there, picking up snow as it went and visibility was nil out beyond more than twenty feet.

"I ... want to hide us and ..." She took a laboured breath, "And I want to remove our tracks. Most of all, I wish to force them to make camp where they are. I am sorry, Yasmikha."

Kari looked and Yasmikha stood in a similar posture, though holding her ears as well. When she felt the hands of the demons and Kari on her shoulders, she grimaced a little, "I feel the stones and the air as Zhaeri does. I feel the torment that she makes. I can stand it and she tries to help.

It hurts me to say it sister," Yasmikha said, "but I have seen those ones. Whether it is out of the thickness of their officers' skulls or from their own stubbornness, those are hard men and it will take a lot to make them stop."

Zhaeri stood with her head bent and beads of sweat standing out on her face. "Then let it be a test of will – or stupidity," she smiled, though with some effort, "I have more to draw on yet."

There was a dull flash from outside which was followed almost at once by rattling thunder from not too far off. The wind went from blowing solidly and strongly to where it began to moan and whistle.

"If they still come in a little time," she said, "then do not stand near these stones and above all do not go outside, for you will never be found when my winds begin to scream."

They made their cautious introductions a minute or so later. Yasmkiha smiled and nodded when she met the other humans. "I have the best luck, I think now. We have been here for a time, yet until I met A'ishah, I never saw much in the way of beauty. I guess I didn't know how to look or something."

She laughed, "It must be so, to judge by these ones. Do you know A'ishah well?"

Kasim shook his head, "We have only met this day, but we talked as we waited." He gazed at her as she took off her cloak and furs, "I've never seen ..."

A'ishah told him what she knew, so as not to make anyone feel out of place. She didn't want that now as she kept stealing glances at the pair of demons who stood nearby a little nervously. Kari said a little of his past and who the demons were to him and then Zhaeri and the pair of humans looked as the demons stepped forward.

"I like the way that you look," Zahra said, a little shyly, "but why are you not wearing anything? You came in out of the cold that way and I ... I only wonder."

"We are not cold," Ahnyazh said with a smile, "We do not need clothes except to deceive humans and then," she smiled a little wider, "we cause them to appear as we need. But like anything that we do then, it is illusion and not real. We can look like anyone – even you if you like, but I think that it would frighten you and it is not what we want.

I can look like your mother if I wish, or even like ..."

She spun with a little laugh and pointed, "like the one that this one holds in his heart. Do you wish to see how close that I can come?"

Zahra nodded, but Kasim shook his head – his eyes wide.

So Ahnyazh dropped her teasing demeanour, stepping closer to Kasim as she dropped her voice, "Then I will not show it. I would want to make a friend in you both, so that cannot happen if you feel shame."

She touched his shoulder,"A joke is not a pleasant thing if it shames anyone."

The rest of the introductions made, they all tried to help with the meal or getting the horses settled. Felldis turned his head and began to sniff. "I smell something from where Kari lived, some food for horses, I think."

Kari was right there and after a little searching they found some hay and grass that must have been pulled not long before the men left to set their trap out on the road and the horses were eating not long after that.

Zhaeri dropped the winds long enough for Kari to bring in armloads of snow which he placed in a few pots that he found and placed in the fire to melt so that the horses had at least some water. They tended to the horses and Yasmikha worked at butchering one of her two goats, setting one aside after re-stuffing the body cavity with snow. The other one, she cut up and began to try to make them all a meal from to add to what the others had done. Of necessity, there was going to be a lot of meat to their evening meal.

One by one, they all came slowly to the fire, some holding up their hands in careful gestures so that the pair who sat huddled together under some blankets might see that they meant no harm. It was a good gesture, but Zahra and Kasim said that they didn't feel a lot of fear, now that they were all getting used to each other. Mostly they said, it wasn't that they were trying to hide much and only wanted the warmth on their backs.

All of them tried not to stare, as difficult as that proved to be since, though the humans looked to be sitting just on the border of feeling a little shy and a bit nervous and they were lovely in their uncertain way.

A'ishah spoke for them as she helped Yasmikha get the meal on metal spines and soon there were chunks of meat dripping fat into the fire as they cooked over it. Kari pulled his iron pot out of a sack and had it melting snow over the blaze as well but this time, it was for the ones around the fire, going out to bring more as what was inside melted and left room for it. They were all careful not to move quickly anywhere near the couple. When at last, what was in the pot began to steam and bubble a little, he threw in some tea leaves and the place smelled better only from that gentle aroma.

Soon, they were all sitting and sipping something hot and sweet while A'ishah did her best to explain on behalf of the two on the other side of the firepit.

"They are Ouled Nails," she said and then repeated it slowly – "Oo-led Nyhals as it is said, a kind of Berber people from the other side of these mountains. Nhailis are a little like my own people in that many of them are herders and they try to grow crops as well, though they do move around to a degree. Most of the men do not travel far, staying with their animals and their families. The women are the same, doing the things that any woman does for her family.

But for some of them, that is only after they return.

Not all of them, but the girls of some families are dancers, learning it from their mothers and their aunts from the time that they are small. This is what has been done among them for ... well, no one knows how long. They are taught to dance and to sing and to be the perfect entertainers in many ways. As they grow a little older, they are taught in the matters of loving also.

When they are about twelve, they go with older female relations to other villages and towns and there they take up their calling as dancers in the cafes and places of that nature. Where I am from, there is a part of the city known as the Ouled Nail section where many live and work. In many places, women wear the veil, but Ouled Nail women do not, most of them, and there is a reason, for they wish to show their beauty to interest clients.

They are there, most of them, to earn themselves their dowries and they save every coin that they can for that purpose. Many of them when they are older, do more than dance for the right clients and they hoard that gold even more. It can happen that they find themselves with child and they keep them and raise them as they were raised. But there is a goal in mind from the very first, and they never forget what they have come to do.

When they feel that they have enough some years later, they travel back to their home villages and there, they live better lives and find their own men – though now, they think of love and marriage and raising their own families.

Where they once would dance and sing and take anyone that they liked to bed – always for a fee, of course – once back home, they leave all of that behind to keep only one man happy, their husbands. Back home once again, they are the perfect wives and mothers, just as was always done by their people."

She spoke a word or two and both of the ones held out their hands for a moment.

"See the bracelets that they wear," A'ishah smiled, "Pretty, in a heavy way with a goodly amount of gold there as well. But ornamental beauty is only one part of it. Look at the bumps and edges to what sticks out from them.

They are weapons, used to keep men with probing hands away. No man can take hold of their wrists in a tight grasp and not bleed for the thought and they are taught well how to use those things to best advantage. Dancers and courtesans they might be, but they are not without their means, all the same."

A'ishah smiled at the pair and told them not to be frightened and she asked something of them that only the demons understood clearly.

All of the others gasped to look at the smoldering glances which came their way from those eyes across the fire. What they saw was the promise of unbridled passion – in the right way and there was a subtle unspoken challenge there at the same time.

"It is not meant, but you see that it is an offer – which carries a price, of course," she chuckled in a tone of some admiration. "There is a thing said of them," she smiled, "a little proverb which is really a warning. Even I have heard of it, from my mother when she pointed a pair of them out to me when they came to work for a short time as guests at the brothel where I lived.

It is said that the man who sleeps with an Ouled Nail will first lose his heart, then his soul, afterwards his wealth, and finally his life. Our guests here do not mean what you see in their faces, for they do it since I asked them to show it so that you might see a little of what they can do."

Her smile faded then and she shrugged a little, "That is how it is supposed to go for them. But that is not what happened to these two. For one thing, only one of them is a girl.

They are twins, a brother and a sister. Their father died when they were small. Still, their mother sought to teach and train her daughter for what was to become her way of life for a time. The boy has always felt some shame, for he never grew as most boys do, always being a little behind in his growth and never growing really strong either.

Their animals were taken over by the men of their mother's family for them and no one wanted to teach the boy much of anything. So he learned to do more ... womanly things at his mother's hand.

When it was time, the girl Zahra left to travel with relations so that she could begin to make her way in the world as is their custom. After a time, their mother finally did find another man – but that man did not want her son. He had sons of his own and things went very badly for this one for a time.