"He stole your Lexicon, and then he had a change of heart. What made him change?"
Ella remembered her and Killian's conversations about the Primate's dream. It all made sense at a basic level, but she felt that equality always needed to be balanced with opportunity. Some people needed a measure of security from poverty, disease, and the threat of violence — a kind of safety net — but people also needed freedom, and the right environment to grow and fulfil their potential. Destroying the system of houses and making everyone equal under one nation, one leader, might be appealing, but life was never that simple.
Most of all, with each generation came new ideas, and changes to a land's culture and the way people's lives were ordered came about gradually and inevitably. Gradual change was rarely detrimental. There was only one way to bring about rapid, wholesale change in the way the Primate intended.
War.
"We talked, I suppose," Ella said.
"Did you ever think it was more than words that changed his heart? That he might have been in love with you?" Shani asked.
"Me?"
"Yes, Ella, you. You're an attractive young woman. Surely you've seen the way men look at you."
Ella blushed. "I don't know."
Three sharp knocks sounded on the door to their shared cabin. "Ella, Shani. Come up to the deck," Jehral's voice called out.
~
THE ship tacked back and forth as the helmsman and captain worked in tight concert with the sailors. This was evidently a delicate manoeuvre: to line them up at the correct place and slip the ship between the two cliffs that guarded passage to the river that would take them into the Hazara Desert.
Ella, Shani and Jehral stood at the rail, holding their breath as the squat ship lumbered from angle to angle, gradually growing closer to the cliffs and the rocky shores that lined their base.
This far south, the sky was clear and devoid of clouds. Ella looked down into the water and was surprised she could see all the way to the bottom. Starfish dotted the seafloor here and there, and huge fish could be seen swimming in lazy circles. Ella looked back at the wake the ship left behind, where dirty bilge water and food scraps trailed the ship night and day. The triangular fins of sharks pierced the waves.
She looked ahead again, and, high above them, the tall cliffs suddenly loomed down on the ship as she passed between them. Ella could almost reach out and touch the face of the cliff, they were so close, and looking quickly to the other side of the vessel she could see that there was little more room on that side.
Ella exchanged glances with Shani, and then looked at the helmsman for reassurance. There was little succour there, his usually blank face was fearful and sweat poured from his forehead.
A sound like wood being dragged through gravel reverberated through the ship. Jehral closed his eyes, and Ella wondered what deity the desert warrior worshipped.
Then they were through.
The sound vanished as swiftly as it had started, and the helmsman broke out in a beaming grin. Jehral rubbed at the desert rose on his sash and smiled, nodding.
"Thanks for inviting us up on deck to witness that," Shani snapped.
Jehral emptied his lungs, breathing out in a slow, steady sigh. "That was even worse on the way in than it was going out."
"This isn't the first time you've done that?" Shani asked.
"Oh no," Jehral said. "My prince commands…"
"And you obey," Shani finished for him. "I understand, man of the desert. You have a wife, don't you?"
"Yes, in Agira Lahsa."
"Well next time, if you're looking for a companion for the delicate enchantress here, why don't you bring her?"
Jehral was pensive for a moment, before he seemed to come to a conclusion. "I was afraid also, Petryan."
Shani glared at Jehral and stormed back below decks.
~
BY THE next day the cliffs had levelled down to rocky sands, and Ella recognised the unbroken expanse of the Hazara Desert. Waves of heat rolled off the ground, and images could be seen in the distance, shifting and changing like the illusions of Raj Hazara's lore.
Two days later, as the ship continued to follow the river deeper into the desert, Ella saw that the light brown of the shoreline had become yellow, and the rocks were fewer in number. To either side dunes rolled like the waves of an endless sea, as unchanging and indomitable but starker, for this ocean was devoid of life. The sand here must be finer, for the gentle wind Ella felt on her cheeks blew the tops off the dunes, spilling the sand into the air like the foam of a breaking wave.
She could see now why the chosen colour of the Hazarans was yellow. It suited them perfectly.
Ella felt Jehral beside her and turned. "I've always found your homeland beautiful."
"My prince and I, we both knew you felt that way. Only some see the true nature of the desert, but I could always see it in your eyes."