23 - Are You Safe from Me?

Shiadan Raghnall, Rasheem Emir-al of His Radiance’s household, one of a dozen, straightened his tunic and tapped upon the door.  Her Small Radiance, Radiance in all but name, the Immutable’s zardukar had never done any more than thank him, or smile at him but even veiled he could see how beautiful she was.  “The lady is ready to leave,” her servant announced, opening the door.

“As her Emir-al, I must protest,” he said.  “The Rasheem are to protect.  If she is going out, there should be more than just I.”

“It is only to a garden, Emir-al,” the lady herself said, emerging.  “It’s not as if I require the full complement of guard for a stroll in the garden.”

He didn’t answer but gave the salaam.  She didn’t giggle, thank Light and Dark.  Lady Mariush was not a giggler.  He told himself sternly to behave.  She was untouchable.  Unthinkable.  It was too bad that his dreaming mind didn’t believe his waking one and had been thinking all kinds of lustful and sweaty things about her.

Her eyes, over the veil, crimped as if she were smiling at him and she swept past.  Her eyes are as blue as his Radiance’s... but the rest of her is so pale.  How can skin like that not get burnt to weeping red, even under a veil? Her hair would help... that shining mass.  She’s going walking in a garden with only a face veil?  She’s not dressed for the sun...

He found himself blushing and reached up to adjust his own face covering.  “Perhaps the lady would be more comfortable with more sun covering?”

“It’s the grotto garden I want to see, Emir-al,” she said.  Her attendant carried her full veil, should she need it.  “The question will be ‘will I be warm enough’ not ‘will I get sunburned’.”

He had to smile.  Of course.  The cavern garden was one of the most secure, even on the cliff face rather than on the butte holding the city.  There was only one, slender, soaring bridge, with no access from either above or below.  Even if someone could climb up from underneath, they’d be in no shape to do anything once they reached the safety of the garden floor.  And the cliff above had been made smooth at his Radiance’s command.

He settled in step, behind Mariush, into his normal place, glad she couldn’t see him looking at her.  The krashnall silk, in silver, covered completely but every motion of her hips was enough to dry his mouth.  Stop looking you idiot, he told himself.  You’re doing yourself the harm.  If you slip His Radiance will expose you so fast... Well, maybe not.  But the demotion would be as bad as getting flung off the heights, and my fall would be perciptious. Just enjoy the view and do your endarkened job.

Thankfully for him, they had a very boring walk.

The Grotto was an experiment of His Radiance.  It was a cut in the cliff face like a more enclosed terrace.  Higher than most farm terraces to gain more light, more enclosed to keep any unwanted seeds or unclean sand from blowing in from above.  The cliff wall was cut to let in light, away from the everpresent hot breeze from the desert above and inside, in the bars of shadow, wonderfully green bands and walls of plants grew, every one safe for people.  The gardeners diligently made sure that no bloodyburst crept in, or wild eyebleed. Lady Mariush stepped through the mist curtain, at the bridge, the water from it plastering her silks even more closely to her body.

“I’ll just check and make sure everyone has been cleared out for your walk, m’lady,” Shiadan said in a rapid sentence, salaamed and wheeled away.

“Of course, Emir-al.  I shall wait here for your all clear.”  Darkness, is she smiling?  I’m just doing my job.

The garden had been cleared of walkers and gawkers earlier in the morning and the area was secure for her, as it should be.  He was smiling when he came back, but his smile went very crooked when he came back to fetch Mariush.  She sat, on the garden chaise... in the midst of a cascade of green vines with red flowers enclosing the whole seat, while giving her an enclosed view of the grotto’s mist veil.

The scent of green and the sweetness of the red vine around her was intense enough to make his head swim. She was entirely alone and her heavy veil was spread next to her on the chaise.

“M...m’lady... where is your attendant?”  He stopped, just outside, looking in at her.

“I sent her back to fetch a lunch.”  Mariush reached up, behind her head, and removed her face veil, bringing her lips into plain view as the gold and cerulean covering was drawn away.  He tried very hard not to stare at them.  “She will be gone for some time.  I am perfectly safe here with my most honourable myrmidon.”

He coughed, coughed again, heat pouring up around his collar and under his own veil making it hard to breathe.  “L...lady are you safe from your myrmidon?”

She smiled, a sweet curve of bare lip.  “I truly hope not.”