Seven Veils of Seth by Ibrahim Al-Koni Page A

there in our world but evil? The moment we catch our breath from one evil, we encounter another. Didn’t you hear the public announcement?”
    â€œI heard the announcement and watched from my vantage point as your herald made his rounds.”
    The chief merchant stared at him with red eyes: “Yesterday all the pregnant women miscarried.”
    â€No!” His disquieting laughter, however, rumbled, and he chortled a bit until he could ask, “Why did that happen?”
    â€œA malady this widespread isn’t a medical issue; it’s a punishment.”
    â€œAnd as you know, a punishment is often a message of deliverance. Should we fear it this much and lapse into anxiety?”
    Amghar waved his hand as if to drive away flies and then asked desperately, “What shall we do with women whose bellies are barren?” He reached out to seize the end of his veil, which had pulled away from his mouth, twisted it around his index finger a little, then pulled it up toward his left ear and tucked it into the fold so his nose was completely hidden. He asked with an unexpected sigh: “Tell me: Is a woman with a barren belly still a woman?”
    Confining his wicked laugh to his chest once more, he replied, “A woman with an empty belly is definitely not a woman, but she’s not a man either.”
    â€œYesterday, after midnight, my wife suffered a miscarriage too.”
    â€œNo!”
    â€œI was there when she ejected the stillborn child the way a she-goat ejects a kid.”
    â€œHa, ha. . . .”
    â€œWrithing like a viper from her pain, she released a sound that reminded me of the bleating of a goat. Then she groaned and the fetus slipped out with the groan.”
    â€œAmazing!”
    â€œI wouldn’t feel so bad if I had children, like most men.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    He looked up at the stranger blankly: “She’s the third woman to enter my home and the first to become pregnant by me.”
    â€œI’m sorry to hear this.”
    â€œThe spirit world has decided to punish me for forgetting my vow.”
    â€œVow?”
    â€œYes, absolutely: my vow. I promised a banquet to the goddess Tanit if one of my wives became pregnant. When she suffered morning sickness, began to crave clay, and admitted to me that she was pregnant, I remembered the vow. By the next morning, however, I had forgotten it because I was busy with one of my caravans that had returned with goods from the forest lands. After that I forgot it altogether and never thought of it again until the affliction struck yesterday.”
    â€œVows are destined to be forgotten. We never remember our vows until after disasters strike.”
    He cast a suspicious look at the stranger: “But the elders say you’re responsible.”
    â€œMe!”
    He glanced far away to remark, “They’re not sure, but evil’s always marked by an omen.”
    â€œHa, ha . . . did they read in the tablet of the Unknown that I bring evil?”
    â€œThe diviner did not confirm that but didn’t deny it either.”
    â€œThey have a right to suspect me since I’m the only outsider to visit the oasis of late. They also have a right to think ill of me because I rejected their community the day I declined to eat with them.”
    â€œI suspect that refusing the invitation is the only reason.”
    â€œYes, indeed; declining an invitation is a sign. Turning down a banquet is always an indication of a departure from the Law that everyone has prescribed for everyone to follow. But . . . but, what do you think?”
    He was silent for a time. Then he replied: “What does the victim think? The victim has a right to be suspicious. Only a person struck by an adder’s fang sees the rope as a snake.”

4 Contraception
    He tucked the purse under his arm and went out. He had awakened shortly before dawn and stammered out his arcane incantations first thing.