FROM CARTASSA TO LANDA ISLAND

Fhaima

7th part

 

  We escaped from Cartassa, we were three, me, my sister Lady Lucy the painter and the slave Fahima, it was not easy to cross that burning desert, with the fear of being attacked by some tribe of marauders or by Panther women outside their territory, the Panthers are perpetually hunting for men to have as slaves and as fertilizers to have female daughters who train them to become cruel savages, while if males are born they are destined for slavery or to be sold to caravans of slavers.

   I had not told you about my sister Lady Lucy Arliss, also adopted by Lady BB, my sister had specialized in the arts of drawing and painting, and in Cartassa she had her own emporium where she worked and sold canvases to visitors or passing merchants, I never knew if she had any suitors, I always saw her on the way to the tea room, where in the afternoon we used to gather and talk about what was happening in the city, sipping some drinks, while the kajira Fhaima was my faithful servant, even though she lived in the shadows, she kept my house and my office tidy, and asked for nothing in return, she had a bed on the upper floor of my house, waiting for my orders. Sometimes if I felt lonely I let her sleep in my bed, this made her the happiest woman in the world, and even in this occasion of danger and escape she preferred to follow me.

   We walked mostly at night, during the day it was very dangerous and the heat suffocated us, the journey was one of the worst I have ever done, with little water and little food available, until a few days later we noticed some fires in the distance, we approached with caution, they were merchants heading to the coast, they welcomed us with friendship, gave us food and water, and were happy to accompany us until the end of the journey, finally we arrived in the new rebuilt city of Korat, I still remember even as a child that I escaped during its destruction, my adoptive parents had died there, bad memories that were dispelled when we arrived in that new construction with high walls and fortifications, built on top of a well protected hill,

When I arrived at the guardhouse I introduced myself to the Captain, a big, fat man who was scary just by looking at him, but when he knew who I was he welcomed me with joy and took me to the Scribes' palace, where the head of the caste showed me around the offices and proposed that I work for them for a while, they needed a merchant Scribe, and to earn something I agreed, while my sister Lucy and my Phaima preferred to return north to my mother's city, Fnnur fjiord.

    I took care of all the pending work in the merchant caste and some disputes, I was still a Magistrate, I earned money to move to the island of Landa, they had told me that my brother Orlando had gone to that city with his daughter Dara, I never knew the name of the companion, and I hoped to know her, so it was that after a little more than a year the time came to say goodbye to everyone and leave, I took advantage of the departure of a ship of Pirates headed to Anango, but they would have stopped in Landa, and one afternoon with the high tide we left from the port of Ship rock, with shining eyes and with the hope in our hearts of meeting Orlando.

    English: We arrived at night, the lights of the city stood out in the sky, we waited until morning to enter the port and moor at the dock, I didn't sleep long before dawn I was already on the bridge and I looked at that city, until the rising sun lit up the golden domes of the buildings, that's why they called it the golden city, it was a beautiful sight, when we arrived at the dock of that great port, I walked along those walkways with mobile bridges to reach the large gate, where outside there were crosses with corpses of men hanging, they served as a warning to ill-intentioned people, when I arrived at the gate they took me to the guardhouse, I gave my credentials and a guard escorted me along a long avenue full of marble columns and very tall palm trees, up to the great staircase of the great palace of the Castes, we climbed those stairs up to the floor of the Scribes caste, they announced me to the tatrix lady Zypero, who welcomed me with honor, but unfortunately she said Orlando had left a few days ago, saying he wanted to return to the city of Olni, I was very disappointed but now I was there and I asked the lady to give me a job and a house until I had news of Orlando, and life in Landa began....

darianeditor