"Illusion? How beautiful!" Her name makes Shararat think of the desert’s heat and the way one’s vision seems to waver when they look afar, the false-water awaiting fools at a distance that never seems to diminish. It reminds her, too, of Ak Burun’s gods: a singular deity who wears many, many masks. "I am Shararat," she says as her new companion turns toward the dune she has selected, and the Arabian falls into step beside Illusion as they skirt the edge of the oasis.
Shararat feels blessed. Her company thus far on these Isles has been magnificent, a warm and welcome change from the sands she once resided in. She does not regret traveling with her dam, nor does she dismiss the lessons she learned from the hostile mare or her contemptuous followers. Those experiences make this one all the sweeter to Shararat, and she is content to walk in amiable silence as the two reach the dune and begin their climb together.
Black and gold ascend, one laboring only a little more than the other, and when Shararat looks over at the other mare to see if she, too, is as out of breath, she’s amused to see Illusion is likewise eyeing her. Shararat was born in a land of wet heat, not dry, but her body is built for these extreme conditions provided she takes care of herself. Where Ak Burun may have dared a higher hill, may have challenged another to a race up its soft slopes, Shararat knows she must build up the endurance that Illusion seems already to have acquired.
The climb is therefore challenging but not arduous, and as the black mare finally crests the top of it she turns, pausing to look down at the mingling herd as she regains her wind. "I love everything to be seen from these heights," she says. "It makes me feel a little weightless, as if I could step off the edge and soar, bird-like, over everything." What a wild fantasy. For a moment, Shararat feels something like loss over the fact that she has no wings.
She shakes it off and turns her dished head toward Illusion, one delicate ear likewise swiveling to train on her gold companion as she asks, "Have you climbed the taller dunes here?" |