The Nostradamus Prophecies by Mario Reading Read Free Book Online Page B

for you.’
    ‘Who, for Christ’s sake? Everybody here seems to want me killed.’
    ‘Me. I will speak for you.’
    ‘Why would you do that?’
    ‘I have told you. It was my brother’s dying wish.’
    Sabir realised that Yola didn’t want to be drawn any further. ‘What’s happening now?’
    ‘The Bulibasha is asking whether my brother’s family would be happy if you paid them gold for his life.’
    ‘And what are they saying?’
    ‘No. They want to cut your throat.’
    Sabir allowed his mind to wander briefly into a fantasy of escape. With everybody concentrating on Alexi, he might at least manage a five-yard head start before they brought him down at the edge of the camp. Action, not reaction – wasn’t that how they trained soldiers to respond to an ambush?
    Alexi got up off the ground, shook himself and walked past Sabir, grinning. He even winked.
    ‘He seems to think he put that over rather well.’
    ‘Do not joke. The Bulibasha is talking to the other judges. Asking their opinion. At this stage it is important how he begins to think.’ She stood up. ‘Now I shall speak for you.’
    ‘You’re not going to do all that breast-beating stuff?’
    ‘I don’t know what I shall do. It will come to me.’
    Sabir dropped his head on to his knees. Part of him still refused to believe that anyone was taking this seriously. Perhaps it was all some gigantic joke perpetrated on him by a tontine of disgruntled readers?
    He looked up when he heard Yola’s voice. She was dressed in a green silk blouse, buttoned to one side across her chest and her heavy red cotton dress reached down to just above her ankles, interleaved with numerous petticoats. She wore no jewellery as an unmarried woman and her uncovered hair was bunched in ringlets over her ears, with ribbons alongside and sewn into, the chignon at the back of her head. Sabir underwent a strange emotion as he watched her – as if he was indeed related to her in her some way and that this intense recognition was in some sense relevant in a manner beyond his understanding.
    She turned to him and pointed. Then she pointed down to her hand. She was asking the Bulibasha something and the Bulibasha was answering.
    Sabir glanced around at the two surrounding groups. The women were all intent on the Bulibasha’s words, but some of the men in Alexi’s group were watching him intently, although seemingly without malevolence – almost as though he were a puzzle they were being forced to confront against their wills, something curious that had been imposed on them from the outside and which they were nevertheless forced to factor in to whatever equation was ruling their lives.
    Two of the men helped raise the Bulibasha to his feet. One of them passed him a bottle and he drank from it and then sprinkled some of the liquid in an arc out in front of him.
    Yola came back to Sabir’s side and helped him rise to his feet.
    ‘Don’t tell me. It’s verdict time.’
    She paid him no mind, but stood, a little back from him, watching the Bulibasha.
    ‘You. Payo. You say you did not kill Babel?’
    ‘That is correct.’
    ‘And yet the police are hunting for you. How can they be wrong?’
    ‘They found my blood on Babel, for reasons that I have already explained to you. The man who tortured and killed him must have told them about me, for Babel knew my name. I am innocent of any crime against him and his family.’
    He turned to Alexi. ‘You believe this man killed your cousin?’
    ‘Until another man confesses to the crime, yes. Kill him and the blood score will be settled.’
    ‘But Yola has no brother now. Her father and mother are dead. She says that this man is Babel’s phral. That he will take Babel’s place. She is unmarried. It is important that she has a brother to protect her. To ensure that no one shames her.’
    ‘That is true.’
    ‘Do you all agree to abide by the Kristinori’s rule?’
    There was a communal affirmative from around the camp.
    ‘Then we