Hannibal's Elephant Girl Chapter 8

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Hannibal’s Elephant Girl


by

Ariion Kathleen Brindley



Chapter Eight

The fat man’s heavy boot hit me in the side, throwing me backward into the dirt. I tried to scream, but there was no breath in my lungs. I got to my knees and leaned forward, clutching my stomach with both hands, struggling to breathe. I turned to see him grab the girl’s arm and drag her toward his hut. I started to get up, but a great pressure crushed against my chest and I fell back to the ground, still gasping for breath.

I saw the girl’s eyes flutter open when she made a weak attempt to get to her feet, but she stumbled and fell when the man pulled her along. She grabbed a post by the doorway with her free hand. He pried her hand away, pulled her inside, and slammed the door. I heard the wooden bolt fall into place, locking it.

##

I don’t know how long I sat in the dirt, crying, but finally I got up. My head swam with dizziness when I picked the leaves and twigs from the three balls of yarn and put them in the basket. When I placed the basket beside the door I heard nothing from inside. I knocked and waited for a response, but none came. I pounded on the door and tried to push it open, but it wouldn’t give. “Tin tin ban sunia,” I whispered through a crack in the wood. No one answered. After another moment I turned away toward the trail.

By the time I got to Bostar’s tent my tears were dry. I felt sick; not only did my stomach and side hurt but I felt wounded deep inside. It wasn’t a feeling I could understand. It disturbed me, as if I had done something wrong by not helping the girl. I just wanted to go to Obolus and curl up in that soft place between his chin and chest where I had slept the night before.

I put on a smile for Bostar because he appeared happy to see me and he said he liked my dress. He was a big man like that other one up on Stonebreak Hill. I gave him the square of cloth from the day before, which I had tucked behind my belt, and watched him lay out the loaves of bread. Surely he wasn’t like the man who hit Tin Tin Ban Sunia so hard.

“Do you…” I croaked, not realizing my voice would fail me. I
swallowed and began again, “Do you own a slave, Bostar?”

He wrinkled his brow and studied my face before he answered. “No, my child. I cannot afford slaves.”

“We need eight loaves today.” I watched Bostar for a moment while he stacked the bread on the cloth. Then I took two coins and the jewelry Yzebel had sent with me and held them out to him. “What is the cost of one slave?”

He picked out the tiny gold chain to examine it. “One slave would cost a handful of these,” he said, holding the little chain by the end.

“Oh.” I put the rest of the jewelry back into my purse.

“Wait here one moment.” He went inside.

I pulled my purse strings tight and picked up the corners of the bundle to tie them together, but he came out with more loaves of bread.

“This gold chain is too much for eight loaves, you get three more to make us even.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Yzebel was right.”

“About what?” He stacked the additional loaves on the cloth.

Yzebel had told me that Bostar was a good man, a fair trader. How did she know about men? How does a girl learn the difference between people, separating the good from the evil?

“You see where the sun is, Bostar?”

He glanced at the sky. “Almost down to the treetops.”

“Yzebel told me to be back at her tables before the sun reaches the treetops.”

“Then you should hurry on your way, Little One.” He tied my belt in the back; it had come loose when I removed the bread cloth. “Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked.

“You may see me every day for a long time.” I turned back toward him.

“Good. That means the gods are not displeased with me.” He paused, glanced at me, and then added, “Yet.”

I stared at him wondering which gods he prayed to, and why. That man on Elephant Row had said the gods of the underworld must have made me try to turn the elephants against the handlers. Perhaps those same gods were at work when that man hurt Tin Tin Ban Sunia.

“Don’t ponder so hard, Little One, that’s only a little bit of baker’s humor.”

“Bostar?” I asked.

“Yes?”

“There’s a man up on Stonebreak Hill, living in a shack in the trees. He’s big like you, but covered in hair. Do you know of him?”

He pulled the four corners of the cloth up to tie them together over the bread. “The one who trades in yarn?”

I nodded.

“I’ve heard of him.”

“He has a slave girl who he treats very badly.”

“Yes, they say he deals in slaves.”

“I think she’s a little younger than me and very sweet, although she doesn’t speak our language.”

“Many of the slaves brought into Carthage come from faraway places where they speak strange tongues.”

“I was up there with her today and he hit her with his fist.”

Bostar stopped his hands where they were, on top of the bundle.

“All she did wrong was to make only three balls of yarn for him. He didn’t think it was enough, so he hit her in the face.”

Bostar shook his head. “So cruel,” he said. “There is never any reason to hit a child.”

I didn’t tell him about the man kicking me in the side. When I took the bundle from him, Bostar put his hand on her shoulder. “The merchants of evil eventually meet with deliverance.”

I didn’t understand what that meant.

Bostar must have seen the confused look on my face because he smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Little One. And remember, things always work out for the best.”

“I will remember, Bostar. Good-bye.”

“Good-bye,” he said when I walked away. “Take care.”

##

I didn’t want to go past the place where I met Tin Tin Ban Sunia earlier. I wondered if another trail would take me in a roundabout to Yzebel, but I felt compelled to go by the slave girl’s tent. There was another basket of cotton bolls sitting on the little mat and her spinning tool lay beside it. She wasn’t there and the place appeared to be deserted. A little way beyond the tent someone spoke to me from behind.

I turned, almost losing my balance, and the load of bread. “You scared me,” I said.

“I’m sorry.” They were the soft words of Tendao.

My side hurt more than before, but I didn’t want to tell anyone what happened. Glad for a rest, I set my burden on the grass beside the trail and thought of how much Tendao seemed to be like Hannibal, except that Tendao did not possess the strength of authority I saw in Hannibal. Obolus, even though an elephant, was a male too, stronger than any of them, but he became frightened by little things, as I did.

“Will you go to Lotaz for me?” Tendao asked.

I hesitated, not wanting to see Lotaz again. But I knew Tendao had trouble talking to people and he had helped me, so I shouldn’t even stop to think about it. “Of course.”

He held an object out to me. “This must go to her before sundown.”

When I took it from him, it was much heavier than I expected. “What is this?”

“It’s our goddess, Tanit. Lotaz wants it for her altar.”

The figure was lovely and graceful, two hands tall and carved from black onyx with polished blue stones for eyes. The two pearls Lotaz had given me the night before were now fashioned into dangling earrings. The goddess Tanit sat on a throne that stood upon a square base, all carved from a single block of stone.

“You did this?” I asked, glancing up at him.

He smiled and nodded. “The sculpting of the stone was finished a few days ago. I only needed the pearls to complete the statue.”

“It’s so beautiful.” I noticed some words carved into the base. “You know how to do words?”

“Yes, a little.”

“Tell me the words.”

“I am Tanit your goddess your Tanit am I,” Tendao read.

“Will you teach me?”

Tendao regarded me for a moment and then glanced away, along the trail. Finally he turned back to me. “Why do you—” He lowered his voice. “Why do you want to learn words?”

“I want to learn about everything. Words, elephants, people.”

“I will teach you, but you must promise never to tell anyone. The priests forbid any person outside the temple to know how to read and write.” He pointed to each group of symbols while pronouncing them. “Do you notice anything unusual in the pattern of the words?”

I looked them over again, but didn’t understand. “I’m sorry, Tendao, I don’t know how to read. I only see that some words are repeated.”

“You’re brighter than you think, my friend. Yes, the words are repeated.” He read again, this time starting from the left end of the line instead of the right, but it sounded exactly the way it did before. “You see, it reads the same, forward and backward.”

“That’s amazing, Tendao. Are all words written that way?”

“No, not all.”

Then I remembered my bracelet. “Can you read this?” I shifted the statue to the crook of my right arm and held my left wrist out for him to see.

His eyes widened when he turned the bracelet on my wrist to examine the fine carvings. “Where did you get this?”

“One of the soldiers left it on Yzebel’s table last night. She gave it to me.”

“This wasn’t made here or at Carthage.” He turned my wrist to see the other side. “No craftsman from our region can do this quality of work.”

“Can you read the words?”

“Words?” he asked. “Where?”

“Around the circle on top, very tiny words.”

“Ah, yes. I see them now. These words are ours, but the artisan is not from among us.”

“Say the words for me.”

“All elephants return to Valdacia,” Tendao said.

“Valdacia?”

“Yes, there’s more.” He turned his head to read the rest, continuing around the circle, right to left. “No matter how far they roam.”

“What is Valdacia?” I asked.

“I’ve never heard of that place.”

“All elephants return to Valdacia,” I said. “What is the rest?”

“No matter how far they roam.”

“All elephants return to Valdacia, no matter how far they roam.” I repeated the line and pulled my wrist from his hand to see the words for myself. I squinted in the failing light. The sun would soon be gone from the sky. “Oh, no!” I said. “I must hurry back to Yzebel’s tables.”

“Yes,” Tendao said. “It’s getting late.”

“Watch the bread while I go to Lotaz with the statue.”

“I will.”

I ran along the trail, holding the statue of Tanit in my arms. When I came to Lotaz’s tent, her big slave sat on the carpet with his ankles crossed and his forearms resting on his knees. He stood up when I slowed to a walk.

“So,” he said. “The Elephant Girl returns.”

“Elephant Girl?”

“I’ve heard how you stampeded all the animals on Elephant Row.”

“I didn’t stampede them.”

“Really?” He grinned and I could see he meant no harm; he only teased me.

“Well,” I said, “there was a bit of an uproar.”

“A bit of an uproar is sometimes a good thing.”

“How are you called?” I asked.

“I’m Ardon. And you?”

“Liada.” I liked Ardon and thought he might be able to help me. “I want to talk to you about a slave girl, but I must hurry back to Yzebel’s tables. May I give this to Lotaz now? It’s from Tendao, the work he promised for the jug of raisin wine.”

“Lotaz is not here at the moment. She has gone to meet Artivis. Which slave girl do you speak of?”

“The one who makes cotton into yarn, at the tent back up that way.” I motioned with a tilt of my head.

“The one about this high?” He held his hand out flat, palm down. “With dark eyes?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Why do you ask about her?”

“Please, I must go now. Will you give this to Lotaz when she comes back?” I held the statue out to him. “I will talk tomorrow of the slave girl.”

He took the figure and I turned to run back to Tendao.

I told Tendao about Lotaz not being there. “She went to someone called Artis.”

Tendao appeared surprised at this news. “Did you mean to say ‘Artivis’?”

“Yes, Artivis. Her slave said Lotaz went to meet him.”

“I must go.” Tendao turned abruptly and hurried away, down the trail.

##

By the time I got to Yzebel’s tables with her loaves of bread, it was sundown, but still twilight. None of the soldiers had yet arrived.

“You have a big load to carry,” Yzebel said when I placed my bundle on a table.

“Yes, Bostar gave us ten loaves for the one little chain.” I took the remaining pair of earrings and the two copper coins from my purse and handed them to Yzebel. Then, without thinking, I pressed my hand to my right side.

“Why do you hold your side that way?” Yzebel asked.

“Oh,” I said, taking my hand away to untie the bundle of bread. “It’s nothing.” If I told Yzebel what happened with the fat man up on Stonebreak Hill, she might not send me out to do errands anymore. Or she might even insist on Jabnet going along with me. I wanted to prove to her that I could work on my own and not get into trouble again.

Yzebel smiled and put the jewelry and coins into her own purse. “You’ve done well with the bread. Now let’s get to work. The soldiers will be here soon.”

Jabnet turned the pig on a spit over a second fire so I set to work with the lamps. When they were all lit, I sliced yellow melons and scooped out the seeds, feeling very much relieved that Yzebel hadn’t asked me why I took so long to get the bread.

“Please shell those groundnuts for me,” Yzebel said to me from beside the other cooking fire where she sliced carrots into the stew. “Put a full bowl on each table and sprinkle salt on them. But only a little. Salt is precious until the next oxcarts come across the desert.”

I finished with the groundnuts and set eight empty earthenware bowls on each table, along with wooden spoons—as if the men would ever use them.

Just after dark, two soldiers arrived and demanded to be fed. I filled their bowls with stew and served them melon slices along with small breaks of bread. More men came and soon all the tables were occupied. I hurried from one soldier to another with the juicy slabs of pork Yzebel cut from the spit.

“Will Hannibal come tonight?” I asked when I held out a bowl to catch a slice Yzebel cut away from the bone.

“No. He’s probably taking supper with that woman, Lotaz.”

I glanced up at her. That woman? What did she mean? And did I hear a touch of venom in Yzebel’s words, as if Lotaz were a different sort of creature than she? I started to ask her what she meant but a hungry man yelled for more meat.

The soldiers came and went. I watched for Hannibal, but he didn’t come that night. Finally only three men remained at the tables. They took a long time with their food and drink, talking about a large expedition being prepared for Gadir in Iberia. I knew nothing of Iberia so I decided to ask Yzebel about it later.

Some time after midnight the last three men went away. Yzebel, Jabnet and I began cleaning the tables.

“Well,” Yzebel said, “at least they left a little food for us tonight.”

We collected the coins and jewelry from the tables and the three of us sat down to have our supper.

“Where is Iberia?” I asked Yzebel.

Before she could answer, four drunken men came along the path, staggering toward us.

“Ah-ha!” yelled one of them. “Look at that, my friends. It’s the Elephant Girl herself.” He pointed at me and laughed. “Let’s call for the mighty Obolus and she will have him dancing across the tables for tonight’s entertainment.”

I recognized the obnoxious man. He was the last person I ever wanted to see.




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