Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

72. The Fall of Farid the Faithful

I remembered Nirav at first, but the excitement faded as the days went by.

We marched in the stifling heat that precedes the rain season in these parts. The tree branches swayed, showering me with condensed moisture. The tent's roof dripped with it. I scaled ruins next to the caved-in mine shafts left by those who dug for Enzara's gems since the times immemorial. I waded through the streams inhabited by venomous snakes and sharp-toothed fish.

In short, I had little time or energy for daydreaming as I closed in on the Tigress.

The Tigress made no secret of her approach. She barreled through the jungles. Her elephants stomped a wide trail through the greenery. Her High Scribes burned with magical fire everything that the elephants couldn't trample in her path.

I had no elephants. We didn't even bring our horses. My women filtered down the narrow beasts' trails like shadows until we converged onto our target. It was a deep gorge carved by a nameless tributary of the Enzara River. Once there, we waited for the Tigress to come to us.

I crouched in a low hollow full of rotting wood. Bunches of purple and blue flowers overhang our hiding spot. I pushed them aside to peer at the V-shaped cut of the valley. Its sides were so steep here and sloughed so much that the vines couldn't get a grip on the rock. The gap formed a natural pinch in the road just before it entered the narrowest part of the gorge. A lonely boulder sat on top of the cliff like a sentinel.

"Do you see it?" Miccola asked, tilting her head this way and that. "They say this boulder looks like a kneeling man?"

"Mmgh." I squinted at the rock. "Maybe if that's his shoulder... but no. No, I don't see a man."

A rock this remarkable was a local attraction. It was named Faithful Farid after a poor miner. The tale said that his lover, a merchant, had died on the high seas. He wouldn't believe the sad news. His lover would have to travel through this gap to return home, so he stayed on this high point overlooking the bend in the road. Eventually, Divine Indara turned Farid to stone, freeing his soul for rebirth and reunion with his lover in their next life. This Farid fared better than Naktym's first husband, because the legend recorded his name, but not his lover's name.

"Maybe we're looking at it from the wrong angle," Miccola pondered. "Maybe Farid had a giant pennis."

I perused the rock one more time and didn't see what she saw either. "How did you get this lonely this fast, Miccola? We've only been lying in wait for two days."

"No!" Miccola punched my shoulder. "I'm just worried that the Divines would get angry if it's actually Farid."

"The legend is no more than two hundred years old," Xenophonta said with a sigh. She had repeated this explanation to Miccola for the fifth time. That's only counting the times she did so in my presence. "This remarkable stone could be found on the maps for at least a thousand years. Hence, the fable is a product of fertile imagination, not a divine miracle."

I waved at her with both hands. "Don't spoil it with your logic! Not when Miccola had finally found a man after her heart. The size... the stamina... the charm. Farid is perfect for her."

Xenophonta's eyes, so similar to her father's in shape and color, were completely different in their dispassionate expression. "If so, I'm afraid it must be a short and torrid affair."

Smoke curled around the ancient rock as if in response to her words. I hoped that the flesh of my flesh was right. The last thing I wanted in my present situation was to offend the Divines. I could deal with the locals crying over the loss of their stone lover later, but I prayed for Indara's favor as much as I prayed for Mythra's. I needed both of Them to successfully ambush the Tigress.