Work in Progress:
KARAVANS KARAVANS excerpt In a copse of looming, wide-crowned trees he found suitable privacy. Kneeling, Rhuan took from the beaded bag a rolled section of thin hide. He spread it on the ground, pausing a moment to pass gentle fingertips across the buttery surface. Beneath the moon the hide glimmered faintly, a rippling herringbone pattern of palest coppery scales. He selected other items from the bag and assembled them in careful juxtaposition upon the scaled hide and ivory comb aged to watery yellow, its arched spine carved into the shape of a dragon; a series of small leather pouches, each dyed a different color; a short length of thick, jointed reed plugged with wax at either end; a cream-pale, gnarled root. Rhuan settled into a cross-legged position and began to untie and unwrap silken cord, to unweave dangling sidelocks. The rest of his braids remained interlaced in the complex pattern woven together into the thick main plait hanging down his spine. He also took from the sidelocks all the beads, charms, and coin-rings, and set them on the hide. When the braids were loosed, Rhuan took up the ivory comb and began to work through the rippled sections of waist-length hair. It required time, that; rebraiding it would take more. By dawn he must be finished with the ritual and back at the karavan to aid Jorda and his travelers. For this reason he had elected to undo only the sidelock braids. Combing tamed the loosened hair, though the ripples remained. Rhuan took up the root, cut into it with his knife, squeezed a pale, soapy liquid into his left palm, then began to apply the thin lather to the unbraided hair. Beneath the moon it shone a deep ruddy copper, verging on bloodied black. After cleaning the hair thoroughly, Rhuan unstoppered the section of reed, poured a measure of the contents into his hand, and began to work the oil through the loose hair. When the strands of hair glistened in moonlight with a fragile sheen of oil from scalp to tips, Rhuan began the laborious process of rebraiding the sidelocks, weaving back into them all of the beads, charms, and coin-rings he had removed. With the addition of each colored glass bead, he told over the names of the Thousand Gods. At the completion of the braiding and the telling, Rhuan opened the series of small leather bags set out before him. He then nicked the tip of the little finger on his right hand, the heart-hand. The bloodied fingertip was dipped carefully into each pouch, lifting out a faint smudge of colored powder. He blessed the substances with a touch of warm breath to waken them, and closed his eyes. Rhuan touched the finger to the ten points required by the ritual, all of living fleshthe bridge of his nose between brows, each eyelid, the faint hollow between nose and mouth, each cheekbone, upper lip, lower lip, chin, the notch beneath his throat that joined the collar bones. He opened his eyes. The world hazed red. "No!" The blurt of sound from his mouth was not entirely comprehensible. "Not now--" Sweat burst from his pores and ran down his body in rivulets. Flesh rose up on his bones. Speech was denied. The refrain ran only in his head: Not now--not now--not now-- © 2004 Jennifer Roberson 
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