The Temple Dancer (63 page)

"You did this! You!" Slipper placed his feet astride her and brought his
mouth down close to her veiled face and screamed. A string of spittle hung
from his lips. Then he pounded on her breasts with both hands. She
squirmed but could not ward off his blows After a moment, he rose as if
exhausted. Maya crawled away.

Shahji pushed Da Gama aside: "I am your second. Leave this to me,"
he said and ran toward them. A few feet from the eunuch, he called out,
"Senhor Slipper!"

Slipper stumbled, as if his rising had caused him to black out. He
pitched toward Shahji, who reached out to help him. Whether by mistake
or by design, however, Slipper's motion did not stop. He rammed his head
into Shahji's. The general crumbled to his knees, clutching his nose. But
Slipper rose unhurt. His turban unwound behind him, and he had a smear
of Shahji's blood across his pale forehead.

Maya had made it halfway across the harem bridge when Slipper caught
up with her. "You have ruined me!" he cried, staggering after her.

The bridge, no longer tied down, bounced beneath the eunuch's
strides. Half-drunk, half-dazed from his bashed head, Slipper tottered
from rail to rail. The bridge groaned and pitched with his every step. Maya
clung to a rail.

Slipper advanced, waving the headdress and screaming. He'd long since
stopped saying words.

Geraldo and Wall Khan ran to help Shahji. He waved them toward the
bridge. When they reached it, Wall Khan started to run toward Maya. The
bridge pitched beneath his feet, and Geraldo pulled him back. "Don't be a
fool!" he shouted over the river's roar. "It's too flimsy! The bridge will
fail! "

Slipper had reached Maya, and with the fist that held the headdress he
struck her veiled face. She fell to her knees, but clung to the railing, though
she could not stand. When she looked up, Slipper struck again.

Da Gama and Whisper had now joined the others at the bridge's end.
"Brother!" Whisper called to Slipper. "Leave her! All will be well!"

Slipper turned. His face was a horror. It had collapsed beneath his
fallen hopes. "All will be well when she is dead!" he shouted.

Maya wrapped her arms around the railing and started to get to her feet when Slipper's fat fingers grasped her neck from behind. She writhed but
he would not let go.

"He's killing her!" Da Gama yelled. He grabbed a corner of the bridge
and began with all his strength to lift it. The bamboo and wood lashings
shrieked from being twisted. "Help me!" Da Gama screamed. For he had
seen that Maya held the railing with her arms, and that Slipper had no grip.
"We can shake the eunuch off!" The other men looked at each other, and
obeying Da Gama's commanding voice, grabbed hold where they could.
Together they heaved until, with a creaking groan, they spilled the bridge
onto its side.

When the bridge upended, Maya and Slipper both tumbled into the
roaring water. Maya's head ducked beneath the surface, but still she clung
to the rail. At last her veiled face showed above the foam. She shook her
head, and the veil slid slowly off. In an instant it had swept down the falls.

Beneath her weight and the current's force, the bridge twisted and
flexed. "We can't help her," Da Gama yelled. "It won't hold! She'll have to
come here!"

"Why doesn't she come then?" Wall Khan said. "What's stopping her?"

Then they saw.

Inches from the falls, Slipper's bulky form clung to Maya's ankles. In
the water's rush he planed first one way, then the other.

"He'll drag them both in!" Whisper cried. "He will kill them both!"

"Let go, let go!" Maya gasped as water surged across her face.

Hand over hand, Slipper walked up her leg, as one climbs a rope.
Against the raging current, she held on for both herself and him. She felt
the railing bow beneath her arms.

Water pummeled Slipper's eyes. The current twisted him so hard he
spun like a fishing lure on a string. He reached up and grabbed her knee.
"For God's sake!" he shrieked. "Give me your hand!"

As the white foam cascaded around her, she remembered. Slipper's insults, Slipper's beatings, Slipper's taunts. Slipper at the pass, tearing at her
hurt arm, scrambling over her to safety.

I must be hard as diamonds and as cold, she had told Deoga.

Her sandal had long ago swept down the falls. With her bare toes she
pried Slipper's fingers from her leg. He clung yet harder with the others.
Through the crashing foam, his face grew wild with horror, and malice, and
surprise.

She made up her mind to watch him die.

There was a moment of utter stillness when he at last let go, as though
the river stopped. In the silence of that instant, she saw Slipper lift the hand
that held the headdress. He mouthed some words-she did not care what.

Then the river surged again, and Slipper, screaming, plunged into the
empty air.

Slipper's final slide took but an instant. The falls swallowed him, and he
was gone. Looking at the empty space where moments before the eunuch
had fought the current, Whisper's face grew pale. "Gone! Gone!" he
gasped. He staggered along the bank toward the falls' edge and looked over
the cliff, bent with weeping.

Maya still clung to the railing, clearly growing weak. Da Gama leaped
into the rapids.

"You farangs are madmen!" Wall Khan shouted to Geraldo. "We
should hold the bridge for him at least!" But Geraldo moved more slowly
than Wall Khan would have expected.

Da Gama edged along the railing until he reached Maya. It had been
hard going, for the current was strong, and the bridge seemed on the verge
of collapse. He reached out his hand, but she merely looked at him with
eyes exhausted to the point of death. "Don't let go!" Da Gama screamed.
He could not bear to lose another life. Not hers.

Maya shook her head. Da Gama inched closer. One of her arms
slipped, and her head dipped below the foam. Da Gama begged the gods to
help him. As her other arm let go, he swung toward her with his last remaining strength. His knees caught her hips. He managed to wrap his free
arm around her breasts. Somehow he struggled until he had cradled her
neck in his elbow, and could lift her head above the current. Her eyes rolled
back, and her lips were blue.

The bridge railing finally cracked. Still held in Da Gama's embrace, they ducked beneath the water. He dragged her to the surface-her body
felt limp and lifeless now. He saw the others staring at him desperately
from shore. I'll never get there, Da Gama thought. I don't have the strength.

He looked at Maya. I should tell her that I love her, here as we both die.

But he never had the chance. With an ear-shattering bang, the bridge
cracked in two. Da Gama watched the other half of the bridge pitch end on
end as it bumped the river rocks. With a final heave, it swept down the falls.
Da Gama looked to the shore. The men were struggling to hold on to his half
of the broken bridge, straining to keep it from sliding down the falls as well.

Da Gama's part of the bridge began to move with the current. Like a
gate on a post, pivoting where the men held it fast, the broken end of the
bridge turned slowly for the riverbank.

It's a miracle, Da Gama thought. But he soon wondered if he had spoken too soon. As the bridge drifted toward the shore, the end to which they
clung swung closer and closer to the falls' edge. The river's force grew even
stronger as they reached the plummet. The end of Maya's sari flapped out
over the falls. He held her tight with his remaining strength.

The men holding the bridge could not let go to help Da Gama, for fear
that everything would be swept over. Finally it fell to Whisper, slowly
coming to his senses, to wade like a bird into the river, and with Da Gama's
help to drag Maya to the shore.

Then Whisper came back-Da Gama would never forget that he came
back-and held out his bony hand for the farang. With his help Da Gama
clambered out of the river, and then he kissed the ground.

Then the men let go, and the bridge groaned and fell in pieces down the
falls.

Shahji reached him first. He heaved Da Gama to his feet. "Good job,"
he said. Then he ran to help Maya.

Wall Khan reached them a moment later. He clapped Da Gama on his
back. "Marvelous, marvelous!" he laughed. "That, senhor, is what I call a
settlement! "

The camp, which had been moving swiftly toward departure, erupted into
chaos. Guards were sent for. The hakim arrived, turned Maya on her belly, and slapped her back a dozen times. After sputtering and coughing up
some water, Maya woke. Whisper sent for dry clothing and a veil.

Whisper sent a party of eunuch guards to the bottom of the falls, but
though they searched the pool and the rapids leading from the falls, the
headdress could not be found-nor any sign of Slipper.

After Da Gama had changed into dry clothing he went to thank Whisper. But the Khaswajara was less than gracious. He would not even nod in
reply. "Gone ... gone," Whisper had said, looking out at the falls, and
turned away and never spoke again to him.

Wall Khan, however, made a point of finding Da Gama. After his servants loaded the seven caskets of gold onto an oxcart, he threw a thick arm
around Da Gama's shoulders. "Take heart, farang! There's worse fates than
being hated by the Brotherhood," he laughed. "You are quite a burak. I
want to hire you! I'll be sending the nautch girl up to Viceroy Murad, and
that will take a good man, a man like you, farang." He laughed and clapped
Da Gama on the back. "No other will do, in my opinion! But that won't be
for a few months, of course. In the meantime I've a few problems you
could attend to. You could stay at the Gagan Mahal, in Victorio's old place.
That was quite a settlement, farang! Quite a settlement!"

"You could do worse, Deoga," Shahji said to him when Wali Khan had
left. He'd had the foresight to send for wine, and encouraged Da Gama to
drink to restore his strength.

"What would you do if you were me, General?"

"I'd work for the Moguls. They love their farangs. They'd like a man
like you." Shahji chuckled. "And if I were you, I'd find a wife."

Da Gama shook his head. "No woman could stand me, General. I'm getting used to solitude anyway. Why should I disturb things now?" The two
men laughed. "All the same, I'll consider your advice about the Moguls.
Maybe I'll take Wall Khan's offer-take the nautch girl to the Mogul viceroy.
I can scout things out when I get there."