The Tower of Fear Read Online Free Page B

Say any damned thing that pops into their head.”
    “Yes.” He glanced back at Raheb, still frozen in place. There was an omen as sinister as her daughter’s threat. “I know some people who know some people. I’ll say something to someone.”
    “Thank you. How is your father doing?”
    “He sleeps a lot now. The pain doesn’t bother him as much as it did.”
    “Good.”
    “I’ll tell him you asked about him.”
    *   *   *
    The old man wakened when the door slammed. It had to be slammed or it would not close all the way. “Bel-Sidek?” He winced as the pain shot down his side.
    “Yes, General.”
    The old man composed himself before the khadifa entered the dimness of his room. Only a part of the dimness was due to a lack of lighting. His eyes were growing feeble. He could make out few details of bel-Sidek when he appeared. “Was it a good day, Khadifa?”
    “It began well. Three ships came with the morning tide. There was work. We needn’t worry about where our meals will come from for a few days.”
    “But?”
    “I encountered an unpleasant situation coming home. It was illuminating.”
    “Political?”
    “Yes.”
    “Report.”
    He listened carefully, with a feeling for nuance. His hearing was excellent. Time had been that kind. He heard not only objective substance but the implication that the khadifa was troubled in heart.
    “The woman—Raheb?—bothers you. Why?”
    “She had one son. Taidiki. Her sunrise. Her full moon. He went to Dak-es-Souetta with my Thousand. A brave lad. He held his ground till the end. He was one of the forty-eight of mine who came home. He came back in worse shape than I did. A lot worse. But he was a proud kid. He thought he’d done something. His mother cried for him, but she was proud of him, too. And of everyone who fought the odds at Dak-es-Souetta. Fanatically so.”
    “Is there a punch line to this story, Khadifa?”
    “A year ago Taidiki went into the street and started telling anyone who would listen the same things his sister said today, only he spoke more straightforwardly. He said hard things about our class and the Living. He said the Dartar tribes were not the traitors of Dak-es-Souetta, that Qushmarrah had betrayed them first by ignoring them in their need. They had done only what they had to do so their children could eat. When one of the Living tried to hush him, he denounced the man. When the man resorted to threats, Taidiki’s neighbors—our neighbors—beat him senseless.”
    “I’m still waiting for the punch line.”
    “Taidiki took his own life afterward, as a protest. He said Qushmarrah had murdered him already and he hadn’t had sense enough to lie down.”
    “The point?”
    “That was the moment I first realized there were people of Qushmarrah who were less than enchanted with our efforts.”
    “And?”
    “A more dramatic incident occurred in the Hahr day before yesterday. The Dartars rounded up eighteen ground-level members. They had been denounced anonymously. The Dartars did not bother interrogating them. They just executed them there in the street. Some of the onlookers cheered.”
    “I see.”
    “Do you? Some of the brethren have been feathering…”
    “I said I see.” The General reflected for several minutes. “Khadifa, your father has just had another of his spells and thinks he’s dying again. You round up your brother and cousins and have them here later tonight so they can be given their legacies.”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Fa’tad is in the street out there?”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Help me to the door. I want to see him.”
    “Is it worth the risk, sir?”
    “Is he going to recognize a man who’s been dead for six years?”
    He did not get his fuzzy glimpse of the enemy. Fa’tad al-Akla and his tribesmen, and the Herodian infantrymen, had gone. Char Street had become its normal twilight self.

2
    “What’s this?” Aaron asked, looking at the concoction Laella had set before him. He shifted on his cushion.