Desert Rhapsody - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Afterward, they repacked their things and prepared to enter the wilderness in search of the lions. Aside from the time it would take to get there, the more important part was preparing for the hunt. Jiang Yuan learned a few things from Abal: how to gallop at full speed, how to command the hounds, and how to handle the falcons-apart from Abal’s lead falcon, Moonlight.

It was truly wondrous. Even his hounds obeyed Moonlight’s commands, lunging forward under its lead.

They reorganized their food and clothing. Out in the wild, they could not expose blood, or even leave behind the smell of feces and urine, or predators drawn by the scent would attack those delicious chunks of meat under cover of night. Before they set out, Abal had prepared plenty of jerky and flatbread for precisely this purpose. Water, however, had to be gathered fresh. Leaving the trade route meant leaving water sources behind, and there would be a considerable stretch where they might not find an oasis. Even if they could extract water from plants, they still needed to stockpile a large number of waterskins.

Abal only knew how to filter water through sand, while Jiang Yuan taught him how to settle it with activated charcoal. At the risk of leaving other passersby to starve, she cut several branches from a date palm, burned them into charcoal, and poured the charcoal into a waterskin. After letting it sit for a while, the water she poured out was much clearer. Jiang Yuan said, “It’ll be cleaner if you boil it and filter it again.”

Date palms were precious, but not as precious as a water source. In the desert, water was something that could save lives. Abal stared at Jiang Yuan. “You’re just handing this to me? This method could sell for at least a thousand dinars.”

Only then did Jiang Yuan belatedly realize that this was an era in which knowledge was so valuable it was kept locked away.

“My life is worth more than a thousand dinars,” she answered. “So now, you’ve learned this method.”

The young bandit chief looked at her with those blue eyes of his, seeming both amused and not. He looked for a long time. Jiang Yuan felt deeply uncomfortable; she was not used to staring people down like this, but she did not look away. Those eyes were truly blue, made mysterious beneath his headscarf, like stars in the night.

“I suddenly regret it a little. Fortunately, you don’t fancy any of my men, so that saves me the trouble,” Abal finally said. “This gift, I’ll accept.”

In return, Abal taught her a wider variety of commands. It seemed he intended to give her a few of his hounds. He said, “For now, you only need to know the basics. The rest, I can teach you on the road to Damascus.”

Jiang Yuan respectfully declined.

“You might as well give me a few more bags of gold coins.”

Abal smiled faintly. “I never mistreat my guests or my teachers.”

And so they stayed another day, boiling water and filling waterskins. On the third day, they mounted their camels and set off deeper into the wilderness. Abal came here once every year. The two lions seemed to have come from the southern wilds. Unable to find their pride of lionesses, they had wandered together across the open plains around the oases, where prey was more plentiful. Abal had had his eye on them for a long time, determined to cut off the male lions’ fangs and manes as a glorious testament to his achievements. Now, although one lion had been allotted to Jiang Yuan, working together would make things easier for both of them.

“Your Sun hasn’t been trained. She can’t run fast, and she’ll be frightened until her legs go weak,” he judged Jiang Yuan’s horse.

He said this at dawn on the seventh day. They were about to enter the lions’ territory and had shifted their schedule to the nocturnal rhythm Abal was more used to. Abal and Jiang Yuan were squeezed into the same tent so the hounds could stand guard more easily. He dipped his arrowheads one by one into the dull liquid in a bowl, casually turning his head to warn Jiang Yuan of a few things she needed to know, making it the last relaxed conversation before sleep.

Jiang Yuan held a small bowl and used a stone to mash cactus. They had spent a long time finding poisonous cactus and a desert horned viper. Moonlight screeched majestically from the falcon perch at the tent entrance, monopolizing the discarded snake meat and ordering the other two falcons to fly farther away and find somewhere else to stay. After Jiang Yuan mashed the last piece of cactus, she strained out the juice and poured it, pulp and all, into a small leather pouch, then tied it shut. Abal said, “Leave it here. We’ll ride camels in.”

They had made camp beneath a sand dune. The rolling yellow sands were shrouded in golden-red light, and the long shadows they cast hid their small party within them. In this boundless place, sunrise and sunset seemed almost the same-vast and magnificent, streaming in through the gap in the tent, dazzlingly beautiful.

Jiang Yuan asked, “How long will we be gone?”

As if he could see her worry, Abal said, “You can leave enough fodder for her. I’ll teach you how to set traps to protect the camp. Two days will be enough.”
After he finished sorting the arrows, he casually picked up the bow and drew one arrow to test it. Jiang Yuan heard the wind keen, then a low hum-the arrow had already left Abal’s string, striking the snake meat his two eagles were fighting over a few meters away. The startled eagles took flight and scattered. His hounds barked excitedly and rushed over to seize the meat, but Abal stopped them with a whistle. He walked over, tossed the meat into the fire, and watched until it burned into something no longer edible.

He smiled in satisfaction, put the arrow away, and as he walked back, he pulled off his headscarf. His dark brown curls tossed in the wind. With no sense of awkwardness at all, he undressed right in front of Jiang Yuan and lay down. “Time to sleep, Jia Nan.” Those blue eyes watched her with no small amount of teasing, as if waiting to see how she would react.

Jiang Yuan said nothing. Holding her own blanket, she lay down with a bit of distance between herself and Abal. Oilcloth covered the bottom of the tent, sealing off any way for scorpions and crawling insects to get in while also letting them clearly feel the movements beneath the dunes. When the ground dug into her like this, the breathing of the person beside her no longer felt so conspicuous. Besides, Abal was still a fourteen-year-old minor. Without having killed a lion, he wasn’t even qualified to grow a beard.

She tied a strip of cloth over her eyes as a makeshift sleep mask, then calmly closed them and fell asleep without trouble.

By sunset, they had set up simple barricades around the camp. As for sprinkling lion urine around-would that even work? They led Sun and the remaining two camels into the tent. Enough water and fodder for three or four days had been placed on the oilcloth. Jiang Yuan patted Sun’s neck, hardened her heart, and went out. Fully armed, Abal was already waiting for her on a camel. Above his veil, his eyes were bright and spirited. The hounds growled low in their throats, and the hunting eagles circled overhead, casting shadows under the bright moonlight.

They mounted their camels and headed southwest, deeper into the Nafud Desert. The camels’ brisk gait jostled Jiang Yuan. She tightened her light armor and gripped the curved blade at her waist, identical to Abal’s. Before dawn the next day, they stopped beneath a stone wall. Behind it ran a cold underground current. There, in the desert, they ate fish. The underground stream was home to tiny eyeless fish, their bones sharp and their scraps of flesh prickly in the mouth. But they were delicious. Jiang Yuan treasured them enough to make a bowl of soup, even ignoring the fishy smell. Then, amid the firelight, she heard a shrill, mournful howl.

Jiang Yuan’s back tightened. Abal said, “Wolves. Don’t worry. We have fire, dogs, eagles, and camels. We’re big prey. Unless they’re starving mad, they won’t come for us.” He lounged against the rock, his profile sharply defined, his headscarf draped over both shoulders. Beneath his robe, light armor bound his arms, and one arm rested on his knee. Gemstones reflected the moonlight. Behind him, the soft sound of flowing water was so beautiful it was almost suffocating. Jiang Yuan glared at him. “You said you’d cleared out the predators around here.”

“That’s right,” Abal said. “But I left the wolf cubs alive.” Jiang Yuan turned her head to look at him, waiting for his reason. He glanced at her. “In any case, I’m not the one who killed the wolves. They hate my subordinates, not me.”

“What if they go eat Sun?”

“They won’t go near the camp for a day or two. Otherwise, you’ll just have to work harder so we can get back sooner.”

They no longer had a tent large enough for both of them, so during the day they could only squeeze into the smaller one to sleep. Jiang Yuan couldn’t fall asleep. She lay there with her eyes open for a long while, worrying whether she would find Sun’s bones when they went back. Night stood outside the entrance, shielded by the stone wall. It flicked its tail, stirring up a wave of hot wind. Then she suddenly felt at peace. If she went back and found Sun had been eaten by wolves, she would butcher Night and have it with wine.

After thinking it over, I’m posting this after all.

Too sleepy. Going to bed.

I’ve realized that because of all the overtime lately and my excitement dropping, the quality of my novel is dropping in direct proportion.

Still didn’t get to the lion killing.

Abal heard about activated charcoal, then stared intently at Jiang Yuan, lost in his own thoughts.

Abal: Although she isn’t my type in looks, her personality isn’t bad, and she knows a lot. She’d make a decent lover. Let’s see what else I can dig out of her.

Abal: Tch. A fine horse wasted in the hands of a stupid tailor. This one really has no sense of romance.

Abal has begun his daily flirting routine.

Jiang Yuan continues her daily routine of ignoring him.