The Devourers by Indra Das Read Free Book Online Page A

easily offended. There are more frightening men than you and your companions here in this sinkhole of a bazaar, not to mention this empire, despite your looks.”
    “You might be surprised,” I said, and you seemed off-put by what seemed like a boast, but was merely the truth.
    “So where have your friends gone?” you asked.
    “To wash themselves in the baths.”
    “And you alone among them thinks keeping the stink of travel on you is attractive?”
    “Your tongue is sharp. You might be thankful that I don’t follow the customs of man in treating his woman.”
    “I’m not so easily thankful, either, traveler. If I offend you, take your leave.”
    “Like you, I’m not so easily offended, my lady.”
    “And you shouldn’t be, looking like you do. It’s sensible that you should look like a beast, if you don’t follow the customs of man as you claim. Where are you from?”
    “I don’t remember. And I have ranged far and wide since that unremembered birth. But I came here with my companions from the gates of a city called Nürnberg. From another empire, like this one, but for the people of Europe, known sometimes as the Holy Roman Empire.”
    The mask of your wariness seemed to slip a little. “You’ve traveled far for one with no camels or horses. You must be very tired.”
    “I’ve had enough rest. Tell me, why is a young woman sitting here alone in the middle of a caravanserai? Why is your husband or suitor right now not at my neck with a blade for talking with you?”
    “I let whatever suitors come my way pay for my travels, after which they slip from my sight and are never seen again,” you said.
    “And if you are not wed, why are you not in the company of other women, and covered? Surely you are Muslim, if you are from Persia,” I said.
    “Muslim I may be, yes, but I’ve no husband, nor family, nor home to stay in. My modesty matters little to anyone—I’ve as little need for covering myself as any Hindu commoner you see on the streets.”
    “That is unusual.”
    “Is it? Would that I were lucky enough for the privilege of purdah. Sounds like paradise to me. If you like, you can call Shah Jahan’s guards to drag me to the nearest harem for your pleasure. Perhaps that would suit the eyes of a white man better than seeing a Muslim woman uncovered?”
    “I’m merely curious, my lady. Even with the vast knowledge I’ve gathered of your kind and its various peoples, I sometimes get confused.”
    “My kind.”
    “Khr—that is, humans,” I told you, strangely unafraid of revealing myself.
    “It’s told white men are arrogant, but this is new,” you said, puzzled.
    “And where are you traveling?” I asked.
    “Your fellow white men land on our shores to the west, and now to the east as well. Perhaps they’ll have work, or ships to carry me to other lands,” you said.
    “See the worlds.”
    “The world. Yes,” you said.
    “A strange inclination, for one of your position and sex.”
    “Is it?”
    “So I supposed. My friends will return soon, and we’ll be leaving here, once I’ve washed myself also at the bathhouse.”
    “Then what is it you want, if you’re not staying? Get to it.”
    “These are gold coins from Europe, and more currency from this empire,” I said, and gave you two crowns from a dead Frenchman’s pocket, two silver rupiyas, and two golden mohurs.
    “What do you want for this, if not to lie with me?” you asked.
    “I want a lock of your hair.”
    “Why?”
    “A jewel, if you will, for me to wear around my neck for the rest of my journey. This is a town of bazaars, and you offer your body, for a night or a span of noon, to travelers who yearn for the company of women. I ask for a minute portion of your body to keep for my own forever, rather than the whole for an hour.”
    “You want only bits of my hair for these coins?”
    “I swear it.”
    “It’s done,” you said, and pulled a cascade of curls from behind your ear, and before I could offer you my