the boy approached the guard at the front of the huge white tent at the center of the oasis.
"i want to see the chieftains. i've brought omens from the desert."
without responding, the guard entered the tent, where he remained for some time. when he emerged, it was with a young arab, dressed in white and gold. the boy told the younger man what he had seen, and the man asked him to wait there. he disappeared into the tent.
night fell, and an assortment of fighting men and merchants entered and exited the tent. one by one, the campfires were extinguished, and the oasis fell as quiet as the desert. only the lights in the great tent remained. during all this time, the boy thought about fatima, and he was still unable to understand his last conversation with her.
finally, after hours of waiting, the guard bade the boy enter. the boy was astonished by what he saw inside. never could he have imagined that, there in the middle of the desert, there existed a tent like this one. the ground was covered with the most beautiful carpets he had ever walked upon, and from the top of the structure hung lamps of hand-wrought gold, each with a lighted candle. the tribal chieftains were seated at the back of the tent in a semicircle, resting upon richly embroidered silk cushions. servants came and went with silver trays laden with spices and tea. other servants maintained the fires in the hookahs. the atmosphere was suffused with the sweet scent of smoke.
there were eight chieftains, but the boy could see immediately which of them was the most important: an arab dressed in white and gold, seated at the center of the semicircle. at his side was the young arab the boy had spoken with earlier.
"who is this stranger who speaks of omens?" asked one of the chieftains, eyeing the boy.
"it is i," the boy answered. and he told what he had seen.
"why would the desert reveal such things to a stranger, when it knows that we have been here for generations?" said another of the chieftains.
"because my eyes are not yet accustomed to the desert," the boy said. "i can see things that eyes habituated to the desert might not see."
and also because i know about the soul of the world, he thought to himself.
"the oasis is neutral ground. no one attacks an oasis," said a third chieftain.
"i can only tell you what i saw. if you don't want to believe me, you don't have to do anything about it."
the men fell into an animated discussion. they spoke in an arabic dialect that the boy didn't understand, but, when he made to leave, the guard told him to stay. the boy became fearful; the omens told him that something was wrong. he regretted having spoken to the camel driver about what he had seen in the desert.
suddenly, the elder at the center smiled almost imperceptibly, and the boy felt better. the man hadn't participated in the discussion, and, in fact, hadn't said a word up to that point. but the boy was already used to the language of the world, and he could feel the vibrations of peace throughout the tent. now his intuition was that he had been right in coming.
