Loretta of the Lamp - The Fallout

Dance for me

Enobia ordered Loretta from her room in the early afternoon. She sent her to the hammam where her body was scrubbed raw and dressed down with thick argan oil. The women who scrubbed her said nothing about the scratches and bruises on her arms or her thighs as they smoothed rose water and scented oils over her skin and massaged them into her hair. She was left naked for her body to soak in the scents and oils on the marble slab in the hammam in a hot daze. The sunlight streamed down in shafts of light across the room from the slits in the dome shaped ceiling, and she watched the steam and dust motes dance through the golden mist, wishing for a moment that she was light enough to be carried away on the breeze too. Being in the hammam reminded her too much of Doua and the time she had spent with Akil, time that now seemed so precious and lost. She thought of Hess too, and the strength and confidence with which the girl had lived her life. Loretta determined to use that conviction for herself. She may not have owned a large pet snake, and certainly she didn't know how to fight like Akil or Bennou did, but she would fight for her life however she could. The memory of Bennou ripped through her heart as his name came to mind. She was still shell-shocked by the knowledge of how deeply he had betrayed them. He had been working for the Djin King all along and knew so much about who they really were, perhaps more than she or Akil knew themselves. He had even fought the Jin to save her, and it was all a farce, all so he could present her and Akil to the Djin king, she a freak of nature, and he, an escaped genie.

Goosebumps crawled over her skin. The thought of the betrayal made her feel sick, and yet there in that same horrifying moment, she had betrayed Akil as well. All his bitterness and distrust toward her from the very beginning had been well founded.

She swallowed the tears before they formed and turned over on the marble slab to press her face into the smooth surface and block out the light.

Then the women returned and lifted her up off the slab, towelling down her whole body and raking a comb through her hair before sending her to be dressed. For clothing they dressed her in a pale green chemise that was sewn with gold beads in spiralling patterns all over the bodice, down onto the sleeves and the skirt. The pants she was given were of a green that matched the thin chiffon of the outer layer of the chemise. On her feet she wore new leather sandals. Once her hair was dry the women brushed it beyond the point of making her scalp raw. Having hair as curly as she did, Loretta had never placed much value in regular brushing, but now it fell in tumbling cascades over her shoulders. She played with one coiled lock absently as they painted her eyes with grey khol, and rouged her lips and cheeks, the finishing touches.

The banquet was full of people when she arrived, and it was held in the great hall of the Sultan's palace, not in the harem. Sameh was nowhere to be seen, but she had been sent with Ayshah as her chaperone. Ayshah had not said a word to her since Loretta argued against her being beaten. She was so quiet that Loretta wondered if it was that she had been embarrassed by Loretta defending her.
"So what happens tonight?" Loretta asked her finally, in order to break the silence.

Ayshah looked up at her in surprise. "When the Sultan arrives, we will wait on him. Until then we should listen. We can learn valuable things from the words people speak."

Loretta nodded. Perhaps that explained why she had been so quiet. Loretta wandered away from her and into the crowd. Finally she spotted Sameh on the far side of the room standing guard at one of the doors. He met her eyes in careful acknowledgment and then looked away.

She wandered further into the crowd and took tea from one of the serving girls, sipping it as she walked and stared through the crowd of people she didn't know. When she reached one end of the long hall, she turned and began to make her way back.

"I heard he will soon marry again," someone said, just off to her left.

"Did he not only marry the Bedouin's daughter less than a year ago, the red head girl?" came the reply. Two older women in their long black robes leaned toward the head of the great hall, straining to see the Sultan when he should enter the room.