Q Me?

Chapter 2:  From Dust to Diamond

                I sighed deeply as Mac announced, "Checkmate" with an apologetic grin.

"I don't know why I let you talk me into these slaughters.  Have I ever won?"

Mac pursed his lips and pretended to give the matter grave thought, "September 25, 1994?"  He patted my knee, "Don't feel too bad, Joe, I've had a lot more practice."  His gaze flickered to the porthole and the darkness beyond.

"Worried about your car?"

"No, the driver" he gave us a look that was half worry, half anger, "You didn't lie to me to keep me away from Ariel, did you?"

I just frowned and shook my head in mild disgust while Amanda was more vocal, "No we didn't."  She set her glass down with an audible crack, "And if you hadn't gone off on some damn fool crusade and challenged Blade, for God's sake…"

"He killed a good friend in front of me, Amanda" Mac shot back, "What was I supposed to do? Pretend it didn't happen?"

"Well, he must have had a good reason.  Blade's not the type to just kill someone without a reason."

Mac stared at her, "You know him that well?"

"Rebecca did," she said quietly "He was her mentor" Amanda blinked a little too rapidly, "They kept in touch through letters for…" she paused, thinking, "at least two millennia, maybe more."  Her smile managed to be nostalgic, sheepish, and sorrowful "Rebecca was so angry with me…

850 AD

                She swept her long dark locks back from her face before glancing furtively around her.  Satisfied that she was unobserved she carefully set to work picking the lock on the ornate chest.  Soon she gave a triumphant smile and lifted the lid.  She gasped as she drew out a glittering headpiece.  The golden headband was made of delicate interwoven vines.  Tiny malachite leaves depended from the rim.  Each one was rimmed in gold and thin gold lines traced their slender veins.  Ethereal pale blue birds flitted around the face of the wearer.  Amanda placed the magnificent piece on her own head.  The gossamer net of finely wrought vines gleamed through her hair while more tiny leaves played hide-and –seek in her tresses.  She rubbed a finger over one of the fiery peridot clusters that adorned the ends of the net.  She ran her trembling fingers over the equally intricate matching necklace before fastening it around her neck.  The necklace was followed by matching armbands and bracelets.  She was admiring the sparkling blue diamond in its elaborate gold and malachite setting when she whirled, eyes wide.   

Rebecca was leaning against the stone doorway in obvious ire, "Find anything interesting?"

"Rebecca" Amanda exclaimed.  She licked her lips nervously, "I was just curious, about what was in the chest and then it was so beautiful I just had to try it on.  Where…"

Rebecca interrupted her explanation, "Put them back, exactly, as you found them and then join me upstairs."

Amanda looked down contritely, "Yes, Rebecca."

Rebecca nodded and left.  Amanda slowly and reluctantly removed each piece and returned it to its place in the trunk, until she reached the ring.  She admired the sparkling blue diamond in its exquisite setting.  As she pulled it off her finger it caught the candlelight and refracted it into a thousand prisms.  She glanced at the chest and then quickly pocketed the jewel and shut the lid.

The two women rode laughing through the torch lit arch and dismounted in the courtyard.  Rebecca yawned, her breath was a gray plume in the brisk December air, as they turned their mounts over to the groom.  Amanda whirled joyously and hugged her companion, "Rebecca, thank you, that was wonderful."

Rebecca shook her head, ruefully, "Where do you get all this energy?"

Amanda smiled mischievously and replied with a toss of her head, "Youth."

Rebecca frowned and stooped "Amanda you dropped" her tone changed abruptly "Amanda, do you know how this got here?"  She opened her fingers revealing the diamond ring in the palm of her hand.  Amanda didn't answer.

"It's too late for this.  Go to bed while I put this where it belongs.  We'll talk in the morning."

 * * *

                Amanda slid carefully out of the bed so as not to disturb her companion.  She quietly slipped on her shoes and put a fur purse over her shoulders.  She quickly pocketed several apples before raising the lid of the plain chest in the room she shared with Rebecca.  She cautiously removed the crystal from its coffer and wrapped it in a plain white cloth.  She rose and fled through the corridors only to come to a swift halt, eyes wide.  Rebecca stepped angrily out and threw Amanda's sword to the ground before her.

"You wouldn't want to leave without this" she snapped "but if you want to leave with that crystal you'll have to fight me for it.  I will not allow you to steal from me."

Amanda swallowed, "I won't fight you.  I can't fight you."

"Then finish what you started.  Learn."

Amanda shook her head, "I don't understand."

"Has no one ever forgiven you before?"

Amanda shook her head.  Rebecca walked over and gently grasped her arm while repossessing the crystals, "Then it's a very important lesson, indeed."  As the two moved off together, Rebecca spoke again "It would have meant nothing to you if you had stolen it.  One day you'll earn it and then it will mean the whole world."  She yawned as she replaced the crystal in its coffer.  She glanced at Amanda and sighed wearily,

"I'm not going to get any sleep tonight, I am?"  She rose and held out a hand, "Come with me, if you will."

Rebecca knelt and lifted the ornate lid of the chest. 

"How old do you think I am, Amanda?"
"You've never said."

"This spring will mark the three thousandth one hundred eighteenth year since Blade gave me a new life."

"Blade?"

"Ari-El" Rebecca replied, almost making it two separate words and rolling the r oddly "Actually it may be best if like the Kindred we call him Blade."

"Why Blade?"

"Ari meant blade or sword in the tongue of his youth, El meant god.  He was his peoples war god."

"There's only one God." Amanda protested, confused. 

Rebecca smiled, oddly, "Now."  She reached into the chest and pulled out metal bound and backed sheet.  Amanda took it gingerly "Tis a vera strange painting; it almost looks real."

"That's because it's not a painting.  Blade had a … magic box he used to make them" Rebecca smiled nostalgically.

"Magic box?" Amanda echoed.

Rebecca's smile grew broader "How Blade would rail if he heard me call it magic.  He use to insist that we could do anything he could, that it was only a matter of understanding and manipulating the universe around us."  The smile faded "Most of the time we couldn't even understand him."

"Which one's Blade?"

Rebecca leaned over Amanda's shoulder looking at the photo and pointed to the man stretched out cat-like on a wind carved sandstone boulder.

"He's vera pretty" she squinted at the picture "His eyes don't match?"

"No" Rebecca said sadly, "One was blue, the other was amber."

"Was" Amanda looked a little disappointed, "Then he's dead?"

"What? No! No, I received a letter from him just last year.  He was in Damascus."

"Who are the others?"

Rebecca's smile was bittersweet "They were my comrades, the Blades.  The most elite fighting force the world has ever known."

"All Immortals?" Amanda asked, clearly surprised.

"Yes, we were Blade's students."

"He had so many students?"

"Oh, he had for more than the twelve of us, less than a fifth of his students were in the Blades.  I still remember the only Arattan reunion I attended.  I couldn't believe there were so many of us."

"Reunion? Aratta?"

"Aratta was Blade's kingdom beneath the mountain.  I'll never forget my first sight of Aratta…"

               

"Ah, brother" Methos called as he brought his weary gray alongside Ari-El's equally footsore silver stallion "We've less than a league to go."

Ari-El stretched artistically in the saddle, "And I will be as glad as the horses to arrive.  I think I can smell the springs from here."

"And where was this fine sense of smell when you failed to return with meat for the pot yestereve?" someone further back inquired with false innocence.

"Even a fine hunter can miss on occasion, Kronos."

"Oh, ho" came another voice "Imhotep fetch me a tablet and stylus, quickly.  This is a historic first, Ari-El has confessed to fallibility."

"Ah, Ashe" Ari-El turned in the saddle and gave the sandy haired man an appraising look, "Shall we now enumerate your own shortcomings?  I hazard we will need a ziggurat wall."

"Only a wall?  For Ashe's faults? Surely we will need the entire ziggurat!"

Ashe frowned "And for you, Moshe, even the walls of Aratta itself would not serve."

The swarthy Egyptian slapped the sweaty neck of his dark chestnut and laughed good naturedly

"A man has to know his own strengths as Ari-El strives for perfection, I strive for decadence."

"And succeed admirably" inserted the Nubian dryly "which is why you are always in debt to one of us."

Ari-El shook his head and addressed the Nubian in a tone somewhere between amusement and exasperation, "Nahor, Nahor you didn't loan him money again did you?  Has he ever paid you back?"

Nahor ran a hand over his scarred, dark scalp and pretended to ponder the question.  His white teeth mane a stark contrast with his mocha skin, "Once, I think, sort of."

Ari-El turned almost completely around in the saddle to stare at the black man on the piebald "Then why do you continue to loan him money?"  His confusion was evident.

The Nubian just shrugged and smiled again, "He thinks of such original ways to squander it."

Ari-El blinked, obviously momentarily at a loss for a witty retort.

"Quit your nattering" the dark haired man on the company's only black said sourly.  He urged his horse forward shouldering both Methos' gray and Ari-El's fiery tempered silver mount aside.  The silver bared his teeth and laid back his black tipped ears at being passed.  Ari-El restrained the stallion's ire while glaring at the back of the black's rider.   The sleek black cat at his feet snarled, bearing its six inch long fangs.  Methos' own annoyance was equally evident, "Remind me again why we tolerate Caspian."

"Because he is a useful tool and I do not discard tools before they have served their intended purpose."

"He's not right in the head, brother."

"Really? I had not noticed" Ari-El's voice was bland.

"Do you…" The rest was lost as the mahogany-skinned man on a golden dun broke into a lusty off-key baritone.  Ari-El laughed and leaned towards Methos so he could be heard, "Lords and Ladies preserve us from Caspian's stomach and Imhotep's voice."  The spirited horse tossed his head tiredly and broke into a rolling canter up the slope.

                There were a host of whoops and a thunder of hooves as the other twelve horses began jockeying for position on the narrow mountain trail.  Ari-El's mount flicked his ears back in disgust but obediently slowed allowing the rest of the herd to pass.  Ari-El drew up alongside the red haired woman who was trailing the others. Ari-El's mount pranced playfully beside the more sedate roan while the spotted cat gambled playfully around the horses.

"Why so long a face, Rivkah?" Ari-El waved towards the curve and the settling dust left in the wake of their companions "When we are nearly home."

"Your home" Rivkah replied quietly, "I don't have a home"

Ari-El halted both horses smoothly.  He reached out and cupped her chin, raising her face towards his

"You can not possibly with to return to Kanish and slavery?"

"NO" Rivkah shook her head emphatically "but I don't belong here either.  I'm nothing, chattel, a slave." She refused to meet his eyes, "And worse barren.  What right have I to ride beside a god?"

Ari-El grasped her hand his mismatched eyes earnest "Rivkah, Rivkah have you no trust in me yet?"

She opened her mouth to protest but he laid a finger gently across her lips and his eyes were sad

"You are Immortal, Rivkah.  When the man who set you aside is dead, you will be alive.  When the men who used you and called you nothing are dust, you will be alive.  When Kanish is nothing more than broken stones in desert waste, you will be alive.  You have eternity, Rivkah.  You can be anything you want to be."  He leaned away from her abruptly, "If you wish to spend that eternity as a slave then we can ride back to the plains now."  He reached out and rolled her red hair between his finger his eyes giving her a distant appraisal "Fair skin, red hair, blue eyes, your exotic look will make you quite … popular."

His eyes softened as he took her hand and tenderly brushed his lips over her knuckles, "Or you can continue what we began in Kanish and become something different."  He gave her a compelling look,

"Finish what we have started, learn" He backed off then sitting as impassively as a statue on an equally still stead as Rivkah wrestled with indecision.  Suddenly she kicked the placid roan into a reluctant gallop.  Ari-El smiled and pursued her up the remaining switchbacks.  She drew up suddenly in shock as she was faced with a craggy granite wall.  She turned to Ari-El "Where did they go?"

"Do you trust me, Rivkah?" he paused "Then follow."  The well-trained horse shot forward and charged unflinchingly through the rock wall to vanish utterly with big cats at its heels.  Rivkah reached out and brushed the rock face to verify its solidity.  She bit her lip and wheeled her mount.  Without another moments hesitation she spurred the roan forward.  The horse slid to a halt in belly deep grass.  Rivkah turned to stare at the seamless stone behind her.

"Welcome to Aratta, Rivkah" Ari-El said quietly.  She dismounted and placed her hands against the granite and shoved.  The stone did not give.

"No one enters or leaves Aratta without my permission."

"And if I wish to go?"

Ari-El dismounted and touched her shoulder.  Her hands curled into fists and she pounded, once, against the glassy smooth stone.

"Do you really wish to leave so soon?" he asked there was a touch of hurt in his voice "I told you in Kanish, Rivkah, you are not my slave.  I will not hold you against your will."  The stone vanished so abruptly that she stumbled and would have fallen if Ari-El had not caught her.  The mountain trail that they recently ridden lay before her the stone gone as if it had never been.  Ari-El tugged a heavy purse from his belt and tossed it at her feet.  His voice was hard  "The way out will always be open for you but if you ride away now don't ever expect to return."

Rivkah sank to her knees and trembling fell forward on her face.  Ari-El rolled his eyes in disgust

"What exactly are you doing, Rivkah?"

She shivered "Please don't punish me, Lord.  It won't happen again."

"What won't?" Ari-El asked wearily.

"I shan't defy you.  I will always strive to please you.  Command me, Lord."

Ari-El folded gracefully into a lotus position facing her.  He set his chin on the folded knuckles of his right hand while resting his elbow on his knee.  He smiled wryly as he comptemplated the trembling woman,

"If this is your idea of defiance then I have a great deal to teach you indeed." He paused until Rivkah raised her head "As for pleasing me, it would please me to teach you, if you will let me.  I think" he appraised her silently "that you have received far too many commands and so I shall give you none."  He assessed the waning light and smiled winsomely "While I hate to agree with Caspian on any matter, we've little time before dinner and I've very good cooks."  His voice grew plaintive, "And even better hot springs."   Rivkah met Ari-El's soulful eyes as he gave her the hopeful look of a begging puppy.  A little flicker of a smile tugged at the corner of Rivkah's lips.  Ari-El bounced to his feet and held a hand out to Rivkah "As I said in Kanish, I would like us to be friends, Riv."  Rivkah steadied herself against the smooth stone of the arch "Such terrible sorcery."

Ari-El laughed light-heartedly "Not sorcery, Riv."  He showed her the delicate gleaming linen of his sleeve and then he rapidly unraveled the cloth.

"Your beautiful shirt" she protested mildly.  Ari-El smiled gently, "All I need to fix it is a loom."

"You do this with a loom?" Rivkah asked sounding even more awestruck than before and looking about wildly for it.  This time Ari-El nearly collapsed laughing.  He regained controlled himself only with difficulty "I confess it is a bit more complicated but no more mystical than weaving clothe."   As he turned and strode off to the horses she fell in dutifully two paces behind.  Ari-El rounded and frowned at the top of Rivkah's head as she stopped submissively.  The roan raised his head from the lush grass at Ari-El's glance and trotted to him.  He caught the dangling reins, pulled the headstall off, and secured the bridle to the saddle.  He then offered Rivkah his arm.  She tentatively interwove her arm with his as he gave her an encouraging smile.  As the pair moved off down the grassy trail the gray emerged from the dense stand of trees.  As the horse pawed a restless furrow his rider glared at their departing backs with hard eyes.  As Rivkah turned back for one final glance at the road behind her eyes met Methos' and she trembled.  Ari-El whirled scanning the trees but the gray had vanished back into the undergrowth.  He sighed deeply and gave the waving branches a disgusted look before sweeping an arm out with a theatrical flourish and announcing with a tone of subdued pride, "Behold, Arrata."

Rivkah gasped in astonishment at the emerald valley with its golden fields, laden orchards, clear waters, and dark green forests but it was the shining city on the high ground that caught the eye.  It caught the light of the setting sun as it slipped behind the high mountain walls reflected it as a rosy gleam against the dark purple shadows cast by the snow capped peaks.   Ari-El laughed in delight at the look on Rivkah's face and tugged her gently forward with a boyish eagerness.  Her gaze shifted to the man in indigo robes a pace down the steep slope to the valley floor.  A curl of golden hair had crept rebelliously loose from the rest giving him a slightly raffish look as his cool blue eye challenged her while his warmer brown one cajoled.  She took a deep breath and straightened meeting Ari-El's eyes willingly for the first time, "Let's go home."

Ari-El half-turned and let out a piercing whistle.  On the valley floor below a horse whinnied in answer.  The road trembled under the pounding as the entire herd thundered toward them.  The horses slid to a stop mere feet away sending a rolling cloud of dust forward.  Rivkah chuckled nervously at Ari-El's disgusted look as the airborne grit settled over him freckling his blue and gold garments with sandy brown.  He swung nimbly onto a stocky red dun mare and swiftly pulled Rivkah up behind.  With the slightest tap of his heels the mare shot forward with the rest of the herd in pursuit.  They rumbled down the slope and across the open pasture land getting misted by the waterfall as they clattered over the bridge that marked the beginning of the cultivated fields.  The rest of the herd turned back at the bridge leaving only the silver and the roan to follow as they passed through fields of ripening grain.  As the road bent to approach the city walls they passed from fields to orchards heavy with fruit and finally through pearly gates into the city itself.  They slowed to a walk as they passed through the portal.  Ari-El slid nimbly down the horse's withers.  He turned, swinging Rivkah down and slapping the mare on the flanks sending her back out the smooth arch at a gallop.  Ari-El led his wide-eyed charge through the smooth opalescent gates and along the glowing golden street.

"Streets of gold?!" Amanda interrupted with an avaricious gleam in her dark eyes.

Rebecca seized Amanda's arm giving her a little shake to regain her attention, "Don't even dream about it."

"Abo't what?" Amanda asked in aggrieved innocence.

"You know what" Rebecca replied with exasperated sternness.  Her eyes were deadly earnest as she continued, "Do not.  Listen.  To.  Me.  Do not make an enemy of Blade, Amanda.  Of all of us there is none worse as an enemy and none better, as a friend."

Amanda's eyes slid back to the jewels and her fingers twitched.  She pulled out the glittering net and placed it over her dark tresses.  Rebecca frowned and then sighed with forbearance until Amanda's covetous look grew too evident.  Rebecca reclaimed her property and settled it on her own head.  She smiled nostalgically at the intricate blue diamond birds that sparkled in perfect counterpoint to her eyes.  Amanda pouted a bit and then asked disbelieving, "You were a slave?" She shook her head "I can'na believe it."

"I was a slave" Rivkah replied slowly "I was the least of slaves.  The fate of a barren woman has never been a pretty one."  She sighed deeply as her eyes darkened with remembered pain "And it was even uglier three thousand years ago.  I was taken in as an infant by a peasant's wife who had a dozen sons.  Life was lean and my mother had claimed me more in the hope of having more help than any maternal desire.  I may not have been loved but I was treated fairly.  I didn't discover how rare that was until it was gone."

"What happened?"
"I was fetching water when I heard a cry for help…

The girl at the well whirled.  Her pale eyes searched the horizon as she set her clay pot down carefully.  She took a tentative step away from the well biting her sun-bronzed lip listening intently.  She ran quickly toward the wadi her bare feet raising dust devils.  She slid down the steep bank snagging her already much-mended tunic on a thorn.  She winced at the sound of tearing fabric but didn't slow.  Milky pale skin showed through the rent in her threadbare tunic and the bright sun turned her red hair into flames.  She advanced cautiously along the wadi floor.  The mud made slight squishing sounds between her toes as she strode along the wadi.  She nearly fell over the horse's outstretched foreleg as she rounded one of the wadi's many curves.  The once proud stallion lay on his side.  The flies and bloating were just beginning and thankfully the stench was still faint.  She skirted the pool of congealed blood that had flowed from his nostrils while seeking the rider.   A faint whimper drew her to the shadow shrouded side of the wash.  The man moaned weakly as Rivkah dropped down beside him.  Her concern grew as she noticed the quantity of  blood crusted on his once fine garments.  He turned dark, fever-bright eyes on her and croaked a plea for water…

"Wait" Amanda interrupted  "Dark eyes?  But I thought…"

"The man I found in the wadi was Nabil the crown prince of the city of Kanish."

"Kanish?" Amanda echoed in puzzlement.

Rebecca's mouth twitched with sardonic humor, "Ari-El was right about Kanish, as he was right about so many things."  She was silent for a long moment before continuing "Kanish was a little like Paris.  It was the center of refinement and culture and home to the King, but the real power in the land was a constantly shifting balance between the King and the visars of the outlying provinces."

"And you rescued the Prince" Amanda exclaimed as she warmed to the intrigue and romance of the tale.

"I didn't know who he was when I convinced my brothers Chaim and Gadiel to help me carry him home.  Our father Imad recognized him at once and was furious.  He refused to have the Prince under our own roof.  He ordered us to return him to the wadii, to obliterate our tracks and to make sure he wasn't alive."

Amanda looked scandalized   "He ordered you to murder the Prince?!" 

"My father was very loyal to Ashur, our visar, but we could not do it.  So we hid him in one of the small caves and I slipped away as often as I could to tend him.  I was sure early on that the fever and infection would kill him but he fought and he recovered.  I begged him when he rode away on our old mule in my brothers' cast offs to forgive my father and to understand his position."

"And then what happened?" Amanda encouraged when Rebecca's pause grew over long.

"A fortnight later Nabil returned with an armed force and put Ashur's house to the sword.  My father cursed the day he allowed my mother to keep me as they took him and ten of my brothers away.  I pled with him and he chose to stay their executions in exchange for their bound servitude.  Chaim and Gadiel were granted estates while I became Nabil's favored wife."

"Did you get to live in the palace?" Amanda asked dismissing the enslavement of the family out of hand.

"For a little while " Rebecca smiled indulgently and then grew somber "I was the petted and pampered favorite.  Then the rains did not came and I failed to conceive and the crops failed and I was not with child and the warhost was defeated and I was barren" she paused looking haunted, "And so, of course, it was all my fault."

"Your fault?" Amanda protested "how could droughts or crop failure or defeats be your fault?  What sin had you committed?"

Rebecca sighed "You don't understand, in those days the King was god on earth and the fertility of the land was the fertility of the King and his wives.  The rains and victory in battle and the crops were all gifts granted by the god above to his favored son.  When Nabil elevated me so far above my station I made many enemies in the court and I was but a naïve farm girl." She studied her hands for a moment "At first Nabil defended me but as Kanish's fortunes faltered and my accusers grew more vocal he gave them what they wanted  - he sent me to the temple as a sacrifice to appease whatever god I had offended."  Her smile was utterly humorless "To everyone's surprise, I didn't stay dead and so I was given to the high priest."

Rebecca's eyes grew vacant with old pain, "And so I became the scapegoat for every woe of every man in Kanish and I paid in blood and pain and degradation.  There was no task too menial, no punishment too harsh, and as the days became months and the months became years I withdrew completely.  I became a shell.  I did only as I was told and nothing more.  I starved often even when food was available.  I fouled myself and I lay in it.  Eventually, they moved my desiccate flesh out beyond the city gate.  How long I was there, too dead to be alive and too alive to be dead I don't know for the first clear memory I have is the brush of the Quickening…"

                Pale blue eyes flickered weakly.  One trembling skeletal hand swiped ineffectually at the thick crust that sealed the lids nearly shut.  Finally one curled nail sloughed away several large flakes complete with their anchoring lashes.  They tumbled down to rest in the deep hollow under her eye.  The eye winked slowly as its owner stared uncomprehendingly at the approaching riders.  Distinct forms began to appear against the backdrop of the newly risen sun.  The first rays of the morning made a golden corona of the lead rider's hair and made his horse as bright as the harvest moon against which the deep indigo of his flowing garments formed a perfect counter point.  The pale blue eyes in the emaciated skull never flickered from the lead rider even as the harried entourage of King Nabil rushed out to intercept the illustrious visitors.  The swarthy man in his gold and silver court finery and carefully oiled hair made a low and sweeping obeisance before the spirited stallion and his silent master.  A murmur of consternation swept the hastily assembled crowd as the Horsemen paid not the slightest attention to the King's formal greeting from the high seat of Kanish and instead scanned the gathered faces clearly seeking something.  The King was forced to scramble ignobly out of the way lest he be trampled as the rider's eye locked with the huddled form beyond the court.  The other Horsemen parted the crowd like an advancing front as they unswervingly followed their leader.  Their eyes never flickered as the crowd frantically scurried to avoid the horses hooves.  All sixteen hooves halted in unison.  The only movement was the swirling dust as the crowd held its collective breath.  Abruptly he dismounted and dropped on one knee.  Tenderly he cradled her head as he smoothly unstoppered his finely tooled water bottle.  "Drink" was the single gentle command.  The King hastened over, fury furrowing his brow at the insult to his dignity and near injury to his person.  He halted in a swirl of fabric and glared daggers at the deep indigo folds of Ari-El's cloak.  The blond paid absolutely no attention to the King's rising indignation but continued to administer small sips of water to the woman at his feet.  The King opened his mouth to speak but only a few garbled sounds of inarticulate wrath emerged.  Ari-El's focus never wavered from the woman.  It wasn't until the King drew back a hand that Ari-El pivoted effortlessly and arrested the hand mid-swing.   The cold fire in Ari-El's eyes silenced all the murmurs in the crowd and turned the King's fury to tremors of terror.  Ari-El gently lifted the filth-encrusted form and cradled her against his pristine golden tunic.  He straightened to his full, impressive, height and swept the crowd with another frosty, unsettling glare that finally came to rest on the King and his chief priest.  His voice rang out with crystalline clarity in the silence,

"Three times messengers have come to me, to plead for my intervention between this city and its neighbors.  Three times you have complained of base injustice, harsh indifference, and heartless betrayal.  So, I have left the rest of my Blades to handle an urgent situation elsewhere and have come leagues out of my intended route to mediate this dispute."  He let the silence hang to the breaking point before continuing  "I believe something of my own nature and that of my company is known in even so provincial a backwater as this."  His glacial glare had never wavered from the King and the priest "Have I not the sent most cordial messages requesting to be informed when individuals of like nature where found?  Have you not three times in as many years petitioned me?  Why then was no mention made of this woman?"  The men caught in his stare were as still and silent as rabbits in a hawk's shadow.  "I claim this woman as blood kin.  I want bath water, suitable clothing, and food in my chambers – NOW.  When, and only when we have settled this matter to my to my satisfaction will we address the political situation."  His eyes clearly dismissed the gathered folk of Kanish "Kronos, would you oversee the horses? Methos, Imhotep attend me."   He commanded as he strode firmly towards the city gates leaving wide eyes and gaping mouths behind.  He carried his burden effortlessly through the dusty streets and swept imperiously into the king's house.  

He was met as he straightened from the low doorway by an elegant woman who stood head demurely lowered.  

"Lady Sariah, I presume."

"My lord speaks true.  If my lord wills I will show him the accommodations that have been prepared for him."

"That would please immensely."

Her dark head bobbed once and without ever raising her head or meeting Ari-El's eyes she turned away.  "Your room, your Lordship."

Ari-El's eyes swept the room with sharp contempt "This is not adequate." 

Lady Sariah's reply was contrite as she continued to stand head down "Your Lordship's pardon but your coming was unannounced… We were not yet prepared."

"Then we will merely have to find our own quarters." Ari-El replied as he sallied forth still carrying his burden with deceptive ease.

After a brief search with a hand wringing Lady Sariah trailing behind Ari-El announced with an air of derision "This seems to be best available, I suppose we must endure.  Lady Sariah if you could send your women…"

"You can not" Lady Sariah exclaimed in fury.  She remained head down but it clearly required restraint "These are the King's rooms."

Ari-El's voice was as warm and as smooth as ice "Are you denying guest right to the Ta'am of Elam?"

Her head snapped up "No, no of course not…" Her protest faltered as she noticed who was nestled in Ari-El's arms.  Her jaw firmed in rage but she could not stand against Ari-El's stare. 

"I want bathing water, now."  Ari-El ordered in clipped authority.

"No" she stomped one slippered foot "We have been three years without a drop of rain.  Our crops are failing in the fields for lack of water.  NO ONE in this house can spare water for BATHING!"

"If it rains will you, personally, fetch heated bath water?" Ari-El asked with just a trace of a smile.

"If, Ta'am, you can bring water to this thirsty land I will serve you and yours personally for as long as you are here."

 "I hope you remember how to heft a pitcher." Ari-El replied lightly as cries of delight rose from outside

"Your rain is here."

"He made it rain" Amanda breathed wide-eyed.

Rebecca shook off her reverie as she fingered each delicate link, "I've seen Ari-El make it rain, end a plague, purify poisoned water, save a withered crop."  She looked at Amanda with the gleam of tears in her eyes "He spent months working with me.  He gave me back my mind, my self-confidence, my self-worth.  He began working on this the very night I came into his care.  Each piece was made individually, intricately by his own hand."  She ran a gentle hand through Amanda's dark hair "To understand how precious that gift of time was you must understand who Ari-El was in those days.  He was like the Pope, kings curried his favor, peasants appealed to him for justice, and priests sought his wisdom.  His homeland of Elam was the Constantinople of its day.  He designed our roads and the trade routes.  He negotiated the treaties.  He was the architect of our great cities.  He was the pivot around which our whole world turned.  He WAS justice, he WAS the arbitrator of our peace, and he WAS also the scourge of war.  He spent long hours in the saddle and even longer ones writing epistles in more languages than I could even conceive existed.  His hands were never still, his mind never quiet as he ably administered a sphere of influence extending from the North Sea to beyond the Spice Road.  These gifts were to represent his consideration of my worth, not only reckoned in the value of the gold and gems but in the workmanship and time as well.  Amanda, these are more than just beautiful baubles, they are the tangible representation of what Ari-El gave me back.  These and what they represent were his second greatest gift to me."

Amanda admired the way the bracelet glittered on her arm "Second greatest?"

Rebecca shook her head "You are utterly incorrigible."  At that moment the cock heralded the morn, "Come, we both have tasks to attend to…"