1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

213
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
“Agha, that is hardly a fair question,” she said. “You say I have given
you services. Do you accept them as a gift, or was I merely slave
bound to render them?”
“You were never as my other slaves, Gul Begum,” he said quietly.
“Surely you must admit that.”
“No, I worked harder, was more often scolded,” she said pensively.
“And were often praised,” he added. “Would you have changed places
with any of my other slaves – with your cousin – with Shereen, for
instance? I never scolded her.”
The girl looked down. “No, Agha, I would not, you know I would not. I
was never unhappy, except in seeing you cast down and overstrained
and anxious. I had no trouble of my own.”
“Not when you heard Mohamed Jan was going to reclaim you and tear
you limb from limb? How quickly you have forgotten, girl.”
“Mohamed Jan! Ah, that is the one name on earth that makes me
tremble, Agha – Mohamed Jan. do you believe in dreams? I know you
do, and in palmistry and all such things, although you will not own it?”
She gave him no time to answer, but continued: “Agha, that man is in
my fate, I cannot shake him off or get rid of him – he haunts me. Old
Miriam said so, and since then I dreamt, oh, such a horrid dream! I
thought that a great thick blackness was drawn between me and the
light, and when I tried to peer through it I saw only as it were through
a mist – a thick white mist like a veil. I strained my eyes and strained
and strained again, then saw a face; it was Mohamed Jan; and then the
darkness deepened again, and I awoke, cold and trembling, and with
the feeling that I had seen a vision rather tha n dreamt an ordinary
dream.”
“Forget all about that now, child,” the official said kindly, but rather
sadly. He, too, was superstitious. “Those thoughts, those dreams, that
fate belonged to Kabul. We have both broken our Kismet, we have
burst our bonds, and as you yourself said but a few minutes ago, we are
free. We must both dream, but now we must dream for the future.
Dreams of peace, and,” after a pause, “of power. I feel a different man.
When shall I reach India? and when are we to get food, and where? this
mountain air gives me quite an appetite.”
“Do you see that cleft in the hills there, Agha, far in the distance? If
we make for that we shall be taking the shortest way to India, shall I
take you there, or will you not stay a day or two and rest? In t his
country we are safe.”
“Rest? Why should I rest?” her companion asked gaily. “What has
there been to fatigue me? I went for an afternoon and evening ride