Nothing Lasts Forever
“Nothing lasts forever.” The voice was rich and warm, the kind of voice that you feel in the chest as much as you hear it.
Zebra was on her knees with her hands tied to something above her, her chin less than a handspan from the floor. She was held there by a rope tied from a halter on her head to a ring set in the floor. A small pile of grain lay just out of reach between her knees and the ring. Held as she was, she could not lie down or stand. If she relaxed her back, legs, or waist, her own weight rested on her arms, causing more pain and making it hard to breathe. Over the hours since her captors had tied her, she had become too exhausted to care about the pain and was now resting on her arms, tensing her back and legs to catch a breath every few seconds.
“They do not mean for you to live through the night.”
She had no desire to disappoint her captors. Since Jamaani had been killed, it had become progressively difficult to find any interest in going on. Had she tried to provoke her captors into killing her? Her current predicament was the result of that failed plan. With difficulty, she could recall flashes of her captivity since Jamaani’s death, but the details slipped away when she tried to focus on them.
That wasn't entirely true. She could remember the last beating all too clearly, but everything else was lost in the fog. Her sense of identity faded into the details of a beating that overshadowed everything else in her memory. In her despair, she no longer cared to remember who she was.
“I cannot take you. When morning comes, they will come to take your skin, only to find you still alive.”
As much as she hurt right now, it paled next to the pain in her heart when she thought about Jamaani. He died trying to protect her. They were each transformed by magic and driven from their homes as a result. She had helped him regain his humanity, and he was the first to accept hers.
“When the end of life comes, it is my given task to ease the way.”
She was floating barely awake in cool water, the pain of life fading into a distant memory. Hands as gentle as a light desert breeze, yet as strong as time, held her head above the water.
“Stand, I will help you.”
Her feet sank into a smooth stone surface as she stood and turned in the waist-deep water to see a man with a jackal's head and dark fur-covered skin, as black as the night sky. Light reflecting off the water danced on him like stars.
“This river has many names, but the living cannot cross it by any of them. I can take you this far, but no farther.”
On the shore, stone steps led from the water to a simple temple that called to her. She knew she had seen it before, but it looked different then, and she couldn't say why it felt familiar now. “Have I been there before?”
“No, and I don’t believe you ever will.”
With no clear idea of what the temple seemed to offer other than the promise of escape from the slavers, she waded toward the steps. As she did, the jackal-headed man stepped aside. She easily climbed the first few steps, each one feeling more natural than the last. Stepping out of the water with her leading foot felt like the most natural thing she had ever done. As she tried to lift her trailing foot, she could not lift it from the water. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t pull it free. Falling to her hands and knees on the steps, she cried. She would have to go back…
“Damn! Why aren’t you dead?” The kick that followed struck her between her ribs and hip. The accent identified the speaker as clearly as his scent did. He was the one who had insisted that none of her captors use names in her presence. He had beaten her so often for using her name that she could barely remember it now. He and another had tied her here.
“I will return. I cannot take you, but maybe I can shelter you. Remember, never use your true name in their presence.” Her tormentor did not seem to hear the voice, which was fine by Zebra. She was no longer sure she had heard it.
“Cut it down and feed it. With luck, it will choke. If not, we have a full day ahead of us, and it should be too sore to run.” Leader kicked her again, this time striking her thigh. He left the stone room as hands belonging to Pisser and another enforcer she could not bother to remember unbound her and hauled her to her feet. They brought her hands in front of her and replaced the lead-covered shackles she now had to wear all the time.
Pisser brought more grain and water in a bucket that did not smell bad. “Since that one escaped, he has lost his mind. If this thing really cannot die, one day it will get free and hunt us down one by one.”
“You have had your fun with it and left your seed in it. It will come for you before it comes for me.” Nameless then laughed and shoved Zebra to the floor. With her hands shackled, she could only roll to land on a shoulder.
“What about you?” While she ate the grain off the floor and drank from the bucket, Pisser and Nameless continued to debate what, if any, limits there should be in how slaves were treated. “This one makes it so much harder than it needs to be. She will not yield. Help me get her to her feet. The boss wanted to reach the Nile by tonight, and that will be a stretch as it is.” The two of them led Zebra out into the early morning sunlight, stopping at the threshold to take down the lead-covered chain and attach its lead-covered shackle to her left ankle.
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“The boss will have our heads if he catches us talking about it this way.” Nameless looked around before saying more. “It is obviously female, but I, for one, thank Allah every day that I did not leave my seed in it. I will not be called to hell to pay for a single night with a jinni. What will you do when it comes for you?” Both men made a hasty bow to the east.
I will beg Allah for forgiveness and run. If a sword will not kill this, what else can I do?
When they reached the chain of other slaves, she was locked near the middle of the chain. Most of the others were now trusted to hold the chain in their hands, with the open shackles hanging from it.
Her memories cleared somewhat as they walked through the desert, coming as needed to make sense of what she saw. When a woman collapsed, she remembered that woman stripped and standing nude in the desert sun, and how the smell changed as she grew less stable each day until now. They kept walking, leaving her behind where she fell. When she saw a man, tied to a horse with his head bandaged, she remembered hitting him with a rock when he tried to untie her after the last beating. She remembered hitting him again and again until she was pulled off of him, the terrible pain, and waking up tied across the back of a horse.
They reached the Nile at Meroe with a handful fewer slaves than when they started. The journey into the desert, only to return to the Nile, which seemed pointless two weeks ago, now made dreadful sense. The desert broke the spirits of the new slaves. In the desert, the slaves depended on the slavers for everything, which made them docile and easy to control.
By midafternoon, they were moving through farmland. She knew this meant they were nearing the first occupied settlement since her capture, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Had she looked, she would have seen a once-thriving city in early decline. They walked through town to a market by the river, arriving just before sunset. The enforcers re-shackled each of the slaves to the long chain, finishing in time to unhitch the horse as the first slaves stepped onto the pier. One end of the chain was attached to a ring set into a timber at the far end of the pier, while the other end was locked to a ring set into the port’s stonework.
A crowd started to gather, eager to see something impossible before it became too dark to see. The noise of many people made Zebra look around. Hiding in a crowd was familiar to the mare, but she knew it would be impossible to blend in here. Her striped skin would make her stand out too much.
She knew where this was headed. She was a prize on display. In a few days, everyone would see her, poke her, and then go on with their lives. After that, the show would move to the next stop. She didn't have much time to dwell on it before three enforcers and Leader approached from the far end of the pier, dragging a small cage. As they got closer, she saw the lead coating and realized it was meant to hold her.
Stopping directly in front of her, they began, removing open rings one by one, placing them in a neat pile on the pier until the end of the cage was allowed to fall with a small crash. The sound made her jump and silenced the crowd.
Without saying a word to her or the crowd, they moved onto the top. Repeating the process until all the links lay in a neat pile. Leader took hold of the top of the cage, swung it up, and held it there silently. Zebra could hear her heart pounding in the silence. He let it swing down to crash against the side of the cage.
A halter was put on her head, and a rope was attached and threaded through the grate on the far end of the cage. She was unshackled from the chain and pulled toward the cage. Just looking at it filled her with dread.
With her heart pounding, she couldn't move forward or back. “Nothing lasts forever. You must yield to what you cannot change until you have the strength to change it.” It was the same voice she had heard before. In the crowd, she saw a completely black dog with enormous ears and a familiar face. “I am Anpu, Finder of the way, and I will be your guide. There is always a price to pay, but I don’t think you will mind the price I will ask. Rafique, on the other hand, is a different matter. Remember, there is always a price to pay.”
She slowly stepped into the cage and crouched down so the lid and end could be closed. Once inside, the halter was attached to a ring on the cage floor, and her hands were shackled behind her back. Two rods were then inserted through the cage—one behind her legs and one beneath her chest—effectively immobilizing her. The end and top of the cage were then closed around her, with the open rings replaced and hammered shut.
She began to sweat and tremble, utterly helpless. To her disgust and confusion, she was also aroused. When the last of the links was hammered shut. Leader came and stood looking at Zebra. He seemed relaxed. “There you are, and there you will stay. Perhaps not till the end of time, maybe just till the end of my time.” Leader grabbed one of the ropes and, with the help of the three enforcers, lifted the cage with her inside and swung it over the edge of the pier into the water.
She screamed until the water cut her off. When they pulled her out, the mare was fully in control of their panicked mind. Emerging from the water, taking a deep breath, the sound she made was now the alarm sound of a panicked zebra mare. Leader and the enforcers repeated this process in and out of the water twice more before they set the cage on the pier.
Crouched inside the cage, and in the dim light of late dusk, she could not see the full extent of the crowd. She didn't recognize Leader until he put his foot on the cage, looked down at her, and said, “I have always liked a good bath, but this one satisfied me more than most. What do you think?”
Zebra struggled to remember who she was and what she had heard. At first, all she could recall was a calm voice telling her that nothing lasts forever. Then she heard herself say, “Rafique, I think that there is always a price to pay. When the time comes, I hope I am there to collect yours.” Zebra had no idea how she knew his name, but she knew it with a certainty that couldn’t be denied. “Abdul-Rafique iben Abdul-Rasheed,” she said aloud.
He nearly fell off the pier in surprise and horror as he backed away from Zebra and the cage. Once he deemed himself safely out of reach, Rafique regained some of his composure and started working the crowd for tomorrow’s bidding, but the damage was already done.
Rafique was known as a man who rarely made mistakes. No one who knew him believed he would be foolish enough to speak his name in the presence of a jinni or tolerate anyone doing so to live. Still, it was clear this jinni knew at least part of his name. Only a fool would buy this problem for himself. But gold is gold, and Allah does not care where it comes from. Maybe the same is true for the jinn. In the morning, the buyers would come. If this were all a show meant to attract a crowd, it would succeed. Rafique also had a reputation for putting on a good show.
After the crowd left for the night, Rafique and Pisser returned to Zebra in her cage. “How long can you hold your breath, Jinn?” Together, they tipped the cage into the water. “Let someone else find it. Better still, let it stay there forever.”