Desert Stars (44 page)

The door behind them parted, and Tiera
stepped inside. Out in the corridor, Jalil’s voice carried as he
shouted with their father.

“
What did you tell her?
Just tell me!” he yelled.

“
What are you doing here?”
Amina asked as the tent flap fell shut. Tiera returned her
impassive gaze without flinching.

“
I’m sorry; last time I
checked, I was still a member of this family.”

Mira sighed. “Please don’t
fight.”

“
Right,” said Amina.
“Well, you all seem to be doing well here; I’ll check up on the
work in the kitchen.”

“
That seems like a great
idea,” said Tiera.

Amina glared at her before parting the
tent flap and storming out. Surayya shook her head and put her
hands on her hips.

“
You two—”

“
Are we finished yet?”
Mira asked.

“
Just a moment,” said
Surayya, returning to her work.

“
You’ve done a great job
with the dress,” said Tiera, admiring her half-sister’s work.
“Mira, you look gorgeous.”

“
Thank you. But what’s
going on outside? Was that Jalil screaming?”

Tiera nodded. “He’s still upset about
Michelle.”

“
Offworlders,” Surayya
muttered, not looking up from her work. “You’d expect Jalil’s own
blood sister to at least stay for his wedding.”

“
When will she be back?”
Mira asked.

“
I don’t know,” said
Tiera. “Father probably convinced her that the wedding would go
faster if she was gone.”

“
And he’s right,” said
Surayya. “It’s barely been a week since Jalil proposed.”

“
Yes,” said Tiera, “but I
doubt he told her that we were moving the camp immediately
afterward.”

Mira’s stomach fell. “What? We’re
moving the camp?”

“
That’s right,” said
Tiera, nodding grimly. “Half the things are already packed. As soon
as the ceremony’s over, the plan is to load up the caravaneers and
take off.”

“
But—but why?”

“
I don’t know, but I
suspect
Shira
is behind it.”

Mira bit her lip and nodded. She
sensed intuitively that Tiera was right.

“
Oh, Mother’s not such a
monster as you make her out to be,” said Surayya, looking up from
her work. “Even if she was behind it, I’m sure there was a good
reason.”

“
She doesn’t want Jalil
and me to run off again,” Mira whispered. “They want to keep us
here, at the camp.”

“
Well, that makes sense,
what with all the crazy things he told us about the world coming to
an end.”

“
Do you believe him?”
Tiera asked, looking Mira straight in the eye.

“
I do.”

“
Oh, come on,” said
Surayya, putting her hands to her hips as she stood up again. “How
could you possibly believe all that?”

Because Jalil has never
lied to me.

“
If what he says is true,”
said Tiera, “then we’re all in grave danger.”

“
Do you believe it?” Mira
asked.

“
Of course I
do.”

Surayya threw up her hands in
desperation. “Can’t you pay attention to what’s important here? In
less than two hours, Mira is going to be a married
woman.”

Less than two
hours,
Mira thought to herself. She didn’t
know what felt more unreal—the fact that she was getting married,
or the thought that at any moment, the world as she knew it might
end.

* * * * *

Jalil’s mind raced, and
not with thoughts of the marriage.
How
could you send her away?
he
wondered.
Why won’t you let me raise her
on the radio?

It all felt so surreal, staring at the
crowd of guests and family. In true desert fashion, they’d decked
him out in the finest silk robes with a golden sword by his side
and the heirloom rifle on his back. From the looks of awe in the
eyes of all the guests, he must have made an impressive figure. Yet
at the same time, he felt utterly and completely powerless, knowing
that the Hameji could strike at any moment.

The door flap on the far side of the
room parted, and Mira entered. Jalil’s breath caught in his throat,
and a rousing cry of cheers and ululating voices arose from the
crowd of guests. She was absolutely stunning in her wedding
dress—more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. Rather than
hiding her face, the ornately embroidered headscarf drew out her
gorgeous eyes, making her smile shine all the brighter through the
veil. He’d known in his mind that they were to be married this day,
but until this moment he hadn’t truly felt it. Now, with his heart
pounding and his legs shaking, he realized for the first time that
it was actually happening.

Mira walked down the aisle and took
her place by his side. Together, they faced the crowd, waiting
several minutes for the cries of jubilation to die down.

“
My fellow tribesmen, both
in law and in blood,” Sheikh Sathi began, “we have come together to
witness the happy and auspicious marriage of my beloved daughter,
Mira
Al-
Jamiyla, to my son from the
stars, Jalil
Al-
Shadiyd. Though Heaven, Earth,
and Hell conspired endlessly to force them apart, they have come
together now to seal that union which, God-willing, shall last the
duration of this life and into the next.”

Come on,
Jalil thought to himself, nervously tapping his
foot.
Let’s get on with it.

“
Though voluminous tales
could be told of their exploits,” Sathi continued, “I do not wish
to delay the celebrations with my longwinded tongue.” He smiled,
and his joke met with scattered laughter. “But if you will spare me
a few words, I wish to express my deepest love for my daughter and
my son.

“
For the past sixteen
years, I have watched Mira blossom like a flower in the desert,
growing from baby to girl to the young woman you see before us now.
Though shy of nature, I can testify that she possesses a strength
of spirit greater than many here. I consider it one of the greatest
blessings of Allah to have been her father.”

Jalil glanced over at Mira and saw her
eyes begin to glisten. He reached down and took her hand—an
audacious move in the eyes of some, but that hardly seemed to
matter. She squeezed his fingers gratefully.

“
And Jalil, my beloved, my
son from the stars,” Sathi continued. “What a supreme blessing it
has been to be counted a father to such a boy! He came to us as an
answer to prayer, in the dark days after the death of my firstborn.
But praise be to Allah, who rules the heavens from his throne on
the Earth of Paradise. Though not of the desert by birth, over the
years he has grown into a fine son and a worthy tribesman, and it
pleases me on this day to name him my successor, both in name and
inheritance. When I go the way of all men, may my son, Jalil
Al-
Shadiyd, lead this camp in the
paths of wisdom, that the Merciful and the Compassionate may grant
His blessings upon all who dwell therein!”

A mighty cheer erupted from the crowd,
and a dozen ululating cries shook the walls of the camp. Jalil
swallowed as a host of unsettled emotions rose in his chest. Next
to him, Mira squeezed his hand as if to reassure him.

“
And now,” Sathi shouted
over the crowd, “let us witness the bride and groom exchange their
vows!”

As the cheering gradually died down,
Jalil turned to Mira and took a deep breath. The words, though
practiced several times at the insistence of his mother, refused to
come. She waited patiently for him to clear his throat, her smile
radiating through the veil of gold and silver coins.

“
Mira
Al-
Jamiyla Bint
Shira
Saharat
Al-
Gharab
Al-
Gaiani
Al-
Jadida,”
he said, looking into her beautiful hazel eyes, “do you promise
before Allah and these witnesses to be my wife?”

“
Yes,” she said, her voice
soft and clear. “Jalil
Al-
Shadiyd
Ibn
Sathi
Al-
Najmi Saharat
Al-
Gharab
Al-
Gaiani
Al-
Jadida, do you promise before
Allah and these witnesses to—”

A noiseless flash from outside briefly
filled the room with an eerie pinkish light, causing a rumble of
confusion to pass through the crowd. Jalil’s stomach fell through
the floor.

“
What was
that?”

“
A flare? Could it
be—”

Ignoring the shocked look
on
Shira
’s face, he ran down from the
stand and out to the side door, his nerves so tight he felt he
would snap.

What he saw outside confirmed his
worst fears. A series of bright orange lights flashed on the
horizon, casting long, eerie shadows across the land. Bright yellow
tracers arced hundreds of miles in the sky toward unseen targets,
falling with deceptive slowness to the ground.

This was it—the Hameji assault had
begun.

“
Jalil!” came his father’s
voice behind him. “What are you doing? Don’t you—”

“
Look,” said Jalil,
pointing with a shaking finger at the signs of battle high
overhead. “Do you see that?”

Sathi looked up and frowned. A
soundless explosion briefly outshone the light of the sun, casting
strange shadows across the barren desert landscape.

“
By the stars of Earth,”
he said. “Is that—”

“
I need to contact
Michelle,” Jalil said. “Please, Father, let me do this.”

Sathi hesitated for a moment, his
cheeks pale. He nodded slowly.

“
What is the meaning of
this!”
Shira
screeched as Jalil ran past
her. “How dare you—”

“
Step aside,” said Jalil.
He sprinted down the dimly lit corridors to his private
study.

Tiera joined him as he entered. The
noise in the halls grew increasingly loud as the crowd spilled out
of the front room. Ignoring them, Jalil flipped the switch to
activate the shortwave.

Nothing happened.

He flipped the switch again, with no
response. Overhead, the glowlamps in the stained glass chandelier
flickered ominously, no doubt from the electromagnetic
pulse.

Jalil swore and slammed his fist
against the dusty equipment.

“
It’s dead,” he said. “All
dead.”

“
Have you
tried—”

Jalil’s head swam, and he wanted
nothing more than to get out of this confined space—to get out in
the fresh air, one last time. He ran past his father, shouldering
his way through the crowd that now filled the corridors and out the
first door into the desert.

The unearthly fireworks continued,
casting strange shadows across the desert landscape. As the guests
scattered—some to their caravaneers, others to the camp’s adobe
shelters—the sky changed from blue to white to pink, then gradually
back to blue. The surreal sight sent chills down his back and made
his stomach go weak.

It was the end of the
world.

“
Jalil!” came Mira’s voice
behind him. He spun around in time to take her in his arms, holding
her as she trembled from fear.

“
Is this it?” she asked.
“Is this the end?”

Shouts of panic and confusion sounded
all around them. One caravaneer took off across the desert,
followed by another.

“
Yes.”

She looked up at him and nodded. “Then
let’s at least finish what we came for.”

He looked into her eyes and realized
she was talking about the wedding. Though her face was filled with
fear, she possessed an earnestness that could not be
shaken.

“
Very well,” he said,
taking both her hands in his own. “Mira, do you promise to be my
wife?”

“
Yes,” she said. “Jalil,
do you promise to be my husband?”

In that moment, all the noise and
lights and confusion seemed to fade into the background. It felt
almost like a dream—not a dream of terror, but one of such power
and raw emotion that it would not fade, not even after waking.
Jalil squeezed her hands and leaned forward—there was nothing but
the two of them now.

“
Yes,” he said. “Yes, I
do!”

Mira pulled off her veil and wrapped
her arms around him, pulling him down for one last kiss, here at
the end of the world. Overhead, the sky exploded in pink and orange
and red, while shadows of the mountains danced across the desert
plains.

“
Look!” came Tiera’s
voice, rising above the din of the departing
caravaneers.

Jalil looked up, and his heart skipped
a beat. Out on the horizon, a small black dot raced across the sky.
It circled the camp, approaching nearer with each pass. As it drew
closer, the whine of starship engines drowned out all other noise,
until the shuttle made a hard landing on the dusty ground before
them.