The Phantom Pilot Ch. 05

We started out on horseback after a hurried breakfast, the suns barely up and a thick fog softening the landscape like clouds fallen from the sky. The Sheikh ordered me to bring up the rear with Vananella to better ensure her safety. She watched the mob of cutthroats in leather armor who rode ahead, steel at their side, bows or spears in hand. They paid many compliments to her skimpy attire. She trembled at their sight. Not by choice did the Sheikh surround himself with such men, I knew. He was a tough man in a tough business, those who qualified for a job in his raiding parties tended to be rogues, if not outright criminals.

Vananella regarded them with suspicion.

"See any handsome masters in the group?" I teased her.

She wrinkled her mouth at me. "Three or four."

"Ride up to one of them and start a conversation."

"No!" she said, hoping no one would overhear. "I'm staying back here with you."

I thought she might, but did not say it aloud. "Is Bali Wu connected in any way to this temple?"

"Not to my knowledge."

She lied well, but was she lying to me?

We continued in silence. The ride was not far. With the second rider at the front guiding the Sheikh we arrived as the first planks of morning light pierced the fog. I discerned the gloomy lines of the building, the bizarre architecture. The surfaces of the domed towers were intricately sculpted to resemble phalluses. A closed gate wide enough to drive a wagon through was set into the walls, but no moat, the structure grew right out of the soil. Lush jungle greenery surrounded it. Many rhinoceros statues perched in a neglected garden, overgrown with grass and weeds. Statues of women invariably had exaggerated breasts, those of men or animals had similarly oversized organs. Carvings of huge attributes protruded from the walls: beside the expected ones I saw vulvas, testicles, rabbit and rooster heads. Obviously the place was a fertility temple, the reason the Sheikh became so intent upon it.

My young companion stared more at the temple than she had the men. "I don't want to go inside there," she stated.

"I doubt we will. The Sheikh wants to meet with them. In peace and outside."

"I wonder if I'll have to do any translating?"

"You asked to do it," I reminded her.

"I've changed my mind. It's a woman's prerogative."

"Did Danae teach you that?"

A gong rang before she could speak. I saw a column of men gathered on the ramparts of the temple, clad in robes. They held thin lengths of bamboo, or clutched scrolls close to their hearts. A knife or sword hung from every belt. The Sheikh signaled to his bowmen to stand at ease as a sign of good faith. The gong crashed again and chanting began on the ramparts.

I didn't understand any of the words like at the Askaar camp. "Can you make out what they're chanting?" I asked Vananella.

She nodded. "It's an Askaar dialect. I comprehend enough to make the Sheikh's wishes known."

Remembering her hesitation I said: "I'll tell him you don't understand if you want me to. Then you can remain back here."

Mischief twinkled in her eyes as she urged her pony forward. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

I counted on my fingers. "I lost it four days ago."

The mischievous look turned quizzical.

When we reached the front Namtor and the Sheikh were agreeing they truly had located the fabled Temple of the Rhinoceros.

Upon seeing Vananella the men on the ramparts ceased chanting and banging the gong. They spoke animatedly among themselves, pointing to the girl.

The Sheikh asked her, "Do you know what they're saying?"

"They were praying for an oracle, or a sign."

"For what?"

"Trust. Friendship."

"Why do they keep gesturing at you? Are you the oracle?"

"I seem to be."

"How convenient and transparent a ruse. The innocent virgin?" scoffed the Sheikh, skeptical.

Namtor said "Not every tribe and camp in the known world is hostile."

"Do not discount the fifty armed riders outside their front door," the Sheikh said tartly.

"And what about the happy dust they used on my partner?" muttered the rider.

"They dispatched an intruder, without killing him," Namtor said with a wide shrug of his shoulders. "It's in our best interests if they are peaceful."

"It would be in their best interests to deceive us too," the Sheikh said out of the side of his mouth. "Anyway, what matters is the time has come to bargain."

"What should I say to them?" asked Vananella.

"Tell them we come in force solely to safeguard our ranks. We only wish to purchase medicine and peacefully depart their hallowed grounds."

"Should I announce that right now?"

"Let them speak first."

A man from the temple called down to Vananella.

"I think he wants me to disrobe," she whispered to the Sheikh, "to appear in my pure divine state."

The Sheikh spat, "I think the old fool has ingested too much rhino horn."