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Ben pursed his lips. “That isn’t an easy task, Lady Tijari. Wouldn’t you rather be cleansed with the local waters?”
“No!” Her voice boomed around the basement and I heard the shopkeeper stir upstairs. Tijari gathered herself and cleared her throat. “No. Only the waters from the ghasl will work, and it must be from the first ghasl.”
“That’s a high price, Tijari,” Ben scolded her.
She lifted her nose. “It’s cheap compared to what you would need to give me in exchange for kingdom secrets.”
I turned my head to and fro between the two. “What’s the ghasl?”
Ben folded his arms over his chest and sighed. “They are the sacred pools out of which flows the Masdar River, the single source of fresh water for the entire island. There are three of them-”
“I don’t care about the second two,” Tijari interjected. “I want some water out of the first one. No other water but that will suit my delicate exterior.”
I looked over her hardened body with doubt but kept my mouth shut. Ben’s face told me we were in enough trouble. He stared hard at the stone. “Is this information worth such a task?”
Tijari nodded. “Very much so.”
Ben sighed and dropped his arms to his side. “Then we’ll bring you some, but I can hardly guarantee more than a pint.”
The stone bobbed their head as much as they could. “That will be enough.”
Ben turned to me. “We should go now before darkness falls.”
“Sure,” I reluctantly agreed, and we turned and left the stone to her dusty basement.
“And don’t forget!” Tijari shouted at us as we climbed the stairs. “The first ghasl!”
“Do I want to know what trouble we just asked for?” I wondered as we meandered through the shop. Ghabiun had resumed his slumber with exuberance and his sonorous snoring drifted through the air like a chainsaw.
“Not so much danger as the impossibility of the task,” Ben told me as he stepped out into the courtyard and stopped to turn to me. “As I said, the ghasl are three sacred pools from which the Masdar River flows. The waters of the salty sea are purified by the rocky shores and come out of the ground more pristine than any inland river, and so they’ve long been considered a gift from the gods and not something to be handed out freely.”
“Meaning your barons aren’t going to help us much?” I guessed.
He looked to the east behind the shop and pursed his lips. “Indeed, and I don’t see us receiving a royal decree for so much as a cup.”
“Much less the pint we just offered,” I finished for him as I sighed. “Well, I guess we can fake our way through the guards.”
The corners of his lips twitched upward. “There are only three of them, one to attend to her pool.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Her pool?”
“The guards of the ghasl are three virgins of the highest houses in Kalea. They’re called the Sinless because of their pure status, and they’re trained to protect the pool with the magical gifts granted them through their pure bloodlines.”
My face drooped. “Magic? Powerful magic?”
“I haven’t had the pleasure of being on the receiving end, but I have heard that is so.”
I sighed and my shoulders slumped a little. “Well, I guess we’d better get this over with. I’m sure we’ll find some way around their wily feminine and magical ways.”
Ben grinned and offered me his arm. “It’ll give us a chance to see a rare sight for visitors to Kalea.”
“I just hope it’s not the last sight we see,” I quipped as I accepted his arm and we went on our way.
Ben guided us through the maze of streets in an easterly direction. My feet weren’t happy with me as we scuttled down narrow alleys and pounded our way across stone streets. The vendors and shoppers had awakened from their slumber and crowded the streets with their noises and bodies. I kept close to Ben and he kept his hand close to his coin purse as we were bumped around like balls in a pinball machine.
One particularly rough woman shoved me so hard that only Ben’s firm hold on me kept me from crashing to the ground. “How far are these pools?”
“We need to rent a wagon at the depot and follow the flow of the river upstream,” he told me.
