Loretta of the Lamp

The Spooling

Down in the souq, Akil's spirits suddenly picked up, he had clearly pushed the processing of loss to the far recesses of his mind.

The only thing which changed, was that for the moment he had decided not to be rude or negligent toward Loretta. For the first time since they had been thrown together, they had a normal conversation about the day. About the breakfast of flat bread filled with minced lamb and vegetables that Malah had provided for them, followed by fragrant orange and almond cookies for which they could both only give rave reviews. All ten cookies had disappeared fast while they wandered through the souq and Akil pointed out all the things which had not changed at all, and some of the things which surprised him. His family still ran the centre of the wool trade in the souq, they even purchased a pair of bright red wool slippers for Loretta from one of the stalls, purely because the girl had to be one of Akil's descendants. with her indelible pale-pink eyes.

When they walked away, Loretta reached out and touched Akil's arm to get his attention. She felt him shiver at her touch, but he did not react more other than to turn and wait for her to speak.

"Are girls–" she sucked in a breath as she glanced back once at the girl, "–I mean, are girls sacrificed too?" for a brief moment she felt as though this was almost more horrible than the thought of young boys being sacrificed, but she knew it was not. It was the innocence of the young girl's face that caused the thought to shocked her. She reminded Loretta so much of her younger sister.

He looked at her for a long moment, reading her face in detail before he responded, "Girls are far less likely to survive the ritual," he said slowly, "so most towns will only sacrifice their girls if there are not enough boys to satisfy the smoke."

Loretta swallowed hard.

"Is that worse to you than wasting the life of a boy?" he asked her, a twinge of condemnation in his voice.

She shook her head, "No Akil, not at all, it's just, seeing her–" she looked over her shoulder again but the girl has disappeared back inside the shop.

"Makes it harder," he agreed, his tone of voice showed that he struggled with the same feeling.

She sighed, "And reminds me of my sister. Anyway, where to now, my tour guide?" she asked, and grinned at him.

He blinked twice, momentarily shocked by her smile.

She knew it was the first time she had smiled at him, even if it was just a grin. "Well? What other exciting activities are to be done in Doua, besides visiting the crematorium, buying red shoes, and eating cookies?"

He frowned and looked up at the sky as he thought over it before he said, "Come," and took her arm.

Loretta suspected that he partially grabbed her arm to pay her back for doing the same to get his attention moments earlier, and partly because of their accidental discovery that the longer they stayed in contact, the less unpleasant the feeling became.

Out of curiosity for herself also, she allowed him to keep his grip on her. He led her through the meat market, passed the hanging carcasses of lamb and chicken, passed a seller who specialised in the delicacies of snake and lizard meat, another who sold freshly hatched chicks that could be dropped whole into a clay oven before you or that you could take home in a basket and cook yourself.

Loretta resisted the urge to retch. She looked away and made a mental note that when she was feeling less queasy she would ask Akil what meat there actually was to eat on a hatchling chick, though she reasoned a lobster was cooked in the same way. This thought made her miss seafood. She had not seen a proper body of water since she arrived in the Lamp, and she suspected that an ocean was not likely to be something that existed within the Lamp.