1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

203
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
“and then you will remember your promise and will let me have the
peran, won’t you? By-the-bye, is it quite finished?”
“Quite finished, Sardaro,” the girl said, smiling. “You can take it now,
it is on the shelf with my work.” What cared she for gold embroidered
tunics now? She had other work before her, she was going to ride for
her life and for freedom, she was going to save her maser.
“What is all this about, Gul Begum, where are you going to, and why? I
do not know I can spare you just at this moment. I have much on my
mind and I may need your help.”
The girl’s e yes glowed. “Agha, you do need my help, and I am
prepared to give it. You must fly this cold, murderous country, and today,
and I am prepared to guide you. I am ready.” She raised her bokra
and showed the man’s clothes she wore underneath. “I will go out
saying that I am going to see my mother, but I will go to the Zearat
(grave) on the hill where your wife is buried. I remember the spot well,
thought it is years since I passed by it. There I will pray to God and
seek His guidance till you come. You must bring one servant with you
on a horse and make him hold both yours and his outside while you go
in to pray. After a few minutes, you must go back and tell him that you
have heard news of great importance from an official whom you have
met in the Zearat; that you and he are going to ride to another Zearat
further on to invoke aid from the dead saint buried there; but that he
(the servant) must hasten back into Kabul on foot, as the official will
need his horse. Order him then to take the best horse left in the stables
and ride to Paghman, and ask the Governor if he can give you any
information on some point which you, Agha, can devise better than I
can, not knowing all your business. This will take the only man who
knows the direction in which you have gone, miles out of Kabul, and it
will leave a horse for me to ride.
Presently when he has gone, I can slip out of the Zearat, take off my
bokra, and hide it among the boulders on the hillside, and return as
your servant, to accompany you to the Zearat, fifteen miles from here.
Tell whichever servant you take that to-morrow, being Friday, you will
stay at the Zearat all to-night, and that he is to join you there tomorrow
for mid-day prayers, bringing the Governor’s reply with him.
We will then ride in a totally different direction to another Zearat that I
know of close to my countr y, for then, should we be stopped, and
suspicion aroused by the conflicting account given by the servant, you
can easily say that the man is stupid, and mistook the name of the
Zearat and the appointed meeting-place. If we are lucky – as my heart
tells me we shall be – it will be fully thirty-six hours before any
inquir y will be made about you. The Ameer will just be told that you
have been spending the night in prayer at a Zearat – and he knows that
of late years that has been so constant a habit with you, that, though he
may feel vexed, he will sa y nothing about it, and will not send to
inquire after you.”