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Stiff with cold, Larra offered very little
resistance to the hands gripping her body, and that was probably just as
well, as a few seconds after they had picked her up she was set gently down
on top of something quite soft. She
stopped her pathetic struggling and assessed her
situation. As she was lifted
into the air she realized she was lying on a very comfortable
litter. Not only that, but Rupali
was lying beside her. As the
brown-skinned men carrying the litter began to move down the canyon she began
to realize that she was not being attacked, but
rescued.
Sitting in a circle about the two of them
were more than a dozen young girls.
They appeared to be of a uniform age, Larra guessed that they were
about ten or eleven years old. The
girls immediately set about rubbing her chilled limbs, restoring the
circulation. Larra gave a little
murmur of pleasure as the gentle massage sent a wave of warmth flowing through
her.
In spite of the attention she received, however,
Larra remained alert enough to keep track of where she was being
taken. The litter was carried
rapidly down the canyon. It was
like being carried through a temple dedicated to
elephants. They were there in
all shapes and sizes, many resembling the statue of Ganesh where she and
Rupali had accidentally sheltered.
Each Ganesh was housed in an alcove and elevated
above the flood level of the valley
floor. Most of the other statues
were sculpted into the sides of the cliff and in a few cases rock outcroppings
had been chiseled into freestanding
statues. Most of these were life
sized, but in the case of a few they dwarfed any elephant that had ever
lived.
Larra observed all of this as she was carried,
wondering how long it had taken to create such a magnificent panoply of
pachyderms. That brought to mind
the notes she had made back at the Prahgan
palace. She had taken them with
her when she fled, wrapped in paper she had saturated with oil to keep them
waterproof. The last time she
could remember having them was just before she and Rupali had struggled to
shelter in the flooding canyon.
With a pang of regret she realized that the months of brief notes
she had made were now gone.
Her thoughts returned to the present when
the litter turned a corner in the canyon.
Facing her head-on were two more gigantic
elephants. Standing so close
to one another that their sides touched, they acted as an enormous portal,
the houdahs they carried serving as guard
towers. Larra realized they had
come to the city of what she thought of as the Elephant
People.
Passing through the portal, the procession
passed down an avenue lined with smaller elephants, although each one was
fully life sized. It reminded
Larra very much of the avenue of sphinxes at Karnack in
She and Rupali had now entered the city proper,
and as they exited the avenue of the elephants they passed through the city
market, a place alive with vendors and stalls of every
description. Here their senses
were assailed with myriad smells of the numerous products on display from
spices to exotic flowers, as well as the shouts and calls of the buyers and
sellers.
As Larra’s litter passed by, however,
the market suddenly quieted and a rippled phrase ran through it, passed from
person to person. Larra could
not make out what it was as it was spoken in a language she did not know.
But it seemed to be spoken in a tone of reverence or even
awe.
She saw that she was approaching a magnificent
building constructed in the Indian style and covered with incredibly detailed
carvings depicting scenes from Hindu
mythology. Dominant among them
were elephant motifs, especially those depicting
Ganesh. The building rose in
tiers, beginning with a massive circular lower
level. It reminded Larra very
much of photographs of the great Hindu temples in
Larra gazed awestruck, attempting to calculate
the immense effort and the length of time it had taken to construct such
a splendiferous building. And
then she and Rupali were borne through one of its lower
doorways.
Inside, the building was just as incredible
as it was outside. Penetrated
by many windows, its shimmering walls, which seemed to have been painted
with gold leaf, glowed brilliantly in the light of the
sun. Floors constructed of marble
and granite and gleamed under the feet of the bearers and pillars of malachite
reflected their green light.
Along either the walls stood ranks of armed
guards stretching before them as they were carried deeper and deeper into
the palace. Reaching a grand
staircase the bearers mounted it, taking them up first one level and then
another, and finally continuing down still another corridor after reaching
the fifth level. Again, the walls
were flanked by rows of armed warriors.
Finally a pair of gigantic brass doors loomed before
them.
With a ponderous groan the doors were pushed
back. Larra saw to her surprise
that behind the doors was a small corridor leading to another set of much
smaller doors. Here the litter
was set down and the bearers departed.
The doors were swung closed behind
them. The smaller doors opened
and then Larra and Rupali, who had by this time regained consciousness, were
helped from the litter by the bevy of young girls and escorted into the room
beyond.
The first thing Larra noted other than the
fact that the rooms were luxurious beyond anything she had yet seen, was
that there was not a male in sight.
There were still guards in the room, but they were clearly female,
armed and armored in the style of ancient
Still somewhat weak from her ordeal, Larra
was ushered across the room to a large cushion-covered
divan. The bevy of young girls
then surrounded her, stripping off what was left of her harem jewellery and
washing down her body. Rupali
was dealt with in the same way. At
the same time food and drink was brought.
Larra was ravenous, but she was not allowed
to help herself. The young girls
conveyed each morsel of food to her lips and those of Rupali, using utensils
of gold and ivory.
Larra had difficulty in adjusting to the
situation. Only an hour or so
earlier she had feared rape. Now
she and Rupali were being treated like
royalty. She couldn’t help
turning her eyes to the impassive faces of the female guards lining the
room. Were they there to keep
people out or to keep her and Rupali in?
There was no one to answer her
questions. The young girls chattered
to one another, but their language was completely incomprehensible, although
Larra detected inflections and intonations that indicated that the language
had originated somewhere in the Indian
subcontinent.
Larra suddenly felt very
tired. She was now warm and dry,
and had been fed, washed and groomed.
In spite of her best efforts and a definite feeling of unease, she
had trouble keeping her eyes open.
Rupali too was yawning. It
had been a tortuous few days for the young girl and she was now feeling the
full effects of her ordeal.
The young girls robed them in red silk robes
trimmed with green and gold and then retreated as if realizing that their
charges now needed rest. Larra
was frustrated by her inability to communicate with her rescuers (if that
was what they were). She appeared
to be a captive in another harem, and her experience in these male-dominated
female prisons left her far from happy.
She was, however, too tired to think about her predicament any
further.
Rupali’s heavy breathing
indicated that she was already asleep.
Closing her eyes, she curled up by the young Indian girl and
slept.
Around the two sleeping women the female guards
remained at their posts while the prepubescent serving girls waited
attentively. One of the ornate
grills in the wall of the room slid slowly open and a white-robed man stepped
through. He was of medium height,
and about forty years of age. On
his head he wore a white turban, embroidered in gold and fasten with an emerald
and gold pin. His salt and pepper
beard was neatly trimmed close to his
jaw. He moved with the grace
of a dancer, and stepped quickly across the room to stand next to the divan
upon which the two women slept.
With him was another man, much older and simply dressed; nothing but
a loincloth covering his sinewy frame.
Both men stood beside the divan watching the slow breathing of the
two sleeping women for several minutes before giving a slow nod and returning
the way they had come. Completely
oblivious of their strange visitors Larra and Rupali slept
on.
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