Sapphire Eyes

SAPPHIRE EYES
Part I

I woke up this morning to find a small handful of rice sitting next to me. My master’s daughter, Hai, must have put it there. She cares about me. She feeds me and talks to me when no one else is around. If her parents found out, she’d be in the worst trouble. You’re not even supposed to talk to the slaves like they’re actual human beings.

I’ve been a slave in Ch’ang-an for the past two years. T’ang soldiers came and took me out of my home in India and brought me over. I was traded on the Silk Road. I’m a servant to a rich man named Zayviar and his wife and children. I am also forced to be an entertainer. That’s what all of the young female slaves do. We train in the royal palace, along with Chinese girls, and learn to dance and play music. These T’ang people really like their music. I guess I have something in common with them.


Tonight, I have a performance. I am dancing with two other girls named Hana and Jae. They are both Korean slaves that I’ve befriended. There are four other girls who are also performing. They play instruments and sing while Hana, Jae, and I dance. They’re Chinese, so of course they think they’re superior over us. If there is one thing I entirely despise, it is being treated like I’m nothing; like I don’t matter and my existence is completely trivial. That’s most of the reason why I hated my life back in India. Yet, sitting here on the floor of my master’s home, looking around at all of the beautiful instruments, the goblets of gold, and the marvelous fountain that sits in the middle of the room, I longed for it like I never thought I could.


“Move,” said one of the Chinese girls as she pushed her way past me. Her name was Lana. I hated her so much. She really made me angry. She was performing with me tonight. We had gathered together in the palace again for our final practice before the show.


“Calm,” Hana said. She had appeared behind me. She must have seen on my face how furious I was.


“Alright,” I said. “Let’s just get to dancing.” Jae, Hana, and I put on our costumes. We rehearsed for quite some time, and then the show started. A few minutes into the performance, I noticed a woman in the audience who looked like my mother. I almost burst into tears at that very moment. Thinking of my mother reminds me of that terrible day when they took me away. So I looked away and tried to focus on my dancing.


The next day, all I thought about was trying to escape from Ch’ang-an. I had no idea how I would do it. All I knew was that I wanted to get out of there and back home. My thinking was cut short when Zayviar’s wife said, “Elina!” I ran into the room.


“Yes, master?”


“Tonight is Hai’s birthday. You will serve her and her cousins dinner. After that, get her brother’s clothes ready for school tomorrow.”


“Understood,” I replied. Then I ran back to my little corner to think.


That is when it hit me. Birthday! The emperor’s birthday! A huge celebration was always held for it. People swarmed into the capitol city by the millions. That would be a great time to escape. No one would notice because of the gigantic crowd. Hai would help me. I’d be able to blend in. It’s the perfect escape plan. And the emperor’s birthday was only a few days away…


That night, after Hai was in bed, and I had set out Chang’s tunic for him to wear to school, I grabbed a piece of paper, a brush, and some ink, and started writing out my plan to escape. Getting to the festival would happen by itself, because everyone went out to celebrate. Then, I had to somehow get away from my master at the party. Hai would help me look like a Chinese girl to blend in. After that, I’d be on my own to try and find a way out of Ch’ang-an. It would be risky, but I’d give anything to see my parents, sisters, and brother again.


I slipped into Hai’s room and woke her up. “Hai,” I whispered.


“Yes?” she asked, half asleep.


“I need you to help me with something.” She sat up in bed and moved over so I could sit.


“What is it?” she asked.


“I need you to help me look more like a Chinese girl so I can escape during the emperor’s birthday celebration.”


“Oh, ok. That should be easy.” We stayed up all night figuring out my escape. It would be absolutely perfect.


Three days later, on the twelfth day of the sixth month, the time had come for Hai and me to carry out our scheme. It was going to work. I could feel it.


I went into Hai’s room.


“Ready?” I asked. She smiled at me.


“Let’s do it,” she said. She got one of her silky, colorful tunics out of her closet and gave it to me to put on. It was amazingly soft. It reminded me of the one my mother had hanging in her room back in India.


Hai got out her make-up. She first applied powder to my face. Then she added rouge to my cheeks. She darkened my eyebrows and gave me some forehead gold. After that, she put some lip balm on my lips. It was pasty and smelled wonderful. I looked in the mirror.


Wow, I thought. I looked so much like my mother.


Hai was putting my hair up with pins when her parents came into the room, just as we planned.


“Hai, what are you doing?” her mother asked.


“I’m just dressing Elina up for the festival.”


“Why?” Zayviar asked.


“Fu,” Hai said. “You don’t want people thinking we have dirty servants do you?” Her parents just looked at her, then at each other, then at me.


“She’s right,” her mother said. “I don’t want people thinking our servant is dirty.”


“See, Fu,” Hai said to her father. “Mu thinks it’s a great idea.” I just sat there and prayed that our plan would be successful.


“Alright,” said her father. “Carry on.”


They closed the door and Hai finished my hair.


“Phase one is complete,” she said. We all got into the Sun’s cart and went to the birthday celebration outside of the royal palace. A while into it, Hai and I strayed from the festivities. We pushed our way through the crowd. Then, a soldier stopped us.


“Where are you girls going?” he asked.


“We were looking for a bathroom,” I said.


“Over there,” the soldier said, and pointed to the left.


“Thank you.” Hai and I walked into the bathroom.


“That was close,” she said.


“I know. I think I can handle it from here.”


“Are you sure?”


“Yes. I’ll change into this wool tunic so that I can blend in with the nomads. If I can get past Tibet on my own, I’ll be fine. You have the tunic right?” She pulled it out of her bag.


“Good,” I said. She gave me the bag. We had filled it the night before with two wool tunics, a pair of straw sandals, and some rice. Once I got to the outskirts of the city, I would change into one of the tunics. This was it. Our plan had worked. I was going to get out of there.


All of a sudden, I got a feeling that I was being watched. I looked around.


“What is it?” Hai asked.


“Um, nothing.”


“Hmm, ok.”


Hai hugged me and said goodbye. I would probably never see her again. Hai left the bathroom to go find her family again. I would leave a few minutes after and start traveling southwest to India. I was determined to get back home.


I exited the bathroom with Hai’s bag on my shoulders. A woman came out a few seconds later and walked over to one of the T’ang officials acting as security at the parade. She pointed at me and I knew exactly what had just happened. The woman had been in the bathroom the entire time Hai and I were discussing my escape. She told the officials that I was a runaway slave. My plan was ruined. She turned around and I saw that it was the same woman who had been in the audience during my performance. The one that looked like my mother.


The officials started coming after me and I could only think of one thing to do: RUN. I started running as fast as I possibly could. I saw Hai a little further into the distance.


“Hai!” I screamed. “Hai!”


I caught up to her.


“What is it?” she asked.


The soldiers came up behind us and she knew exactly what was wrong. Her face went entirely white.


They grabbed me by the arms and started pulling me. I broke out in a terrible sweat. This reminded me of when they had taken me away from my family.


“No!” I screamed.


I started kicking and trying to pull away. Now I was making a scene.


“No, Hai! Hai! Tell them that I’m your sister.”


She just stood there, frozen and pale-faced, staring at me as if I were a stranger.


“Come on, Hai! Tell them about our mom, and dad, and brother. And our huge house in the city with the fountain. Please…”


The officials looked at me, and then asked her, “Is she?”


There was a pause that felt like it lasted forever.


“No,” Hai said. “She’s our slave.”


I felt sick. There’s no way Hai just said that. She couldn’t have. She was my friend, almost like a sister.


They took me away. As we were walking, I looked back at Hai. She was in tears, as was I. She mouthed the words, “I’m so sorry, Elina.”


I just turned away and kept walking.


I cried all the way to the prison. They took Hai’s bag away from me and threw me in a small, cage-like cell. I lay there, and I cried and cried and cried.


“I cried my first night here too,” a voice said.


The voice was that of a young Chinese boy in the cell to my right. He couldn’t have been more than a year older than me.


“I’m Lyle,” he said. “Lyle Wang.”


“I’m Elina. Elina Shah,” I replied.


“What are you in for?” he asked.


“I was a slave. I tried to escape. Now I’m in here.”


“Oh. I was a slave too. I refused to work so I was put in here a couple weeks ago.”


“Oh,” I said.


There was a long silence.


“So what’s your story?” Lyle finally asked.


“My story? You don’t want to hear my story.”


“Why not? It’s not like I don’t have the time.”


So I started telling him my sad little story.


“I’ve never really had a lot of friends. All the children in town thought I was strange. They acted like I was some type of disease-ridden animal. They made fun of me all the time. My only friends were my younger sister, Navistha, my older brother, Ekodar, and a girl named Ziana. My other three sisters, Neelam, Nilakshi, and Nina were always mean to me. I hated them. I hated everything about my life. I wanted so badly to get out.


“One day, my mother and father were telling us a story, when the door to our little shack was pushed down and in came these Chinese soldiers. My brother tried to get my sisters and me away. My older sisters ran and hid. The soldiers were saying something. It was in Chinese, and since my mother was Chinese, and had been teaching me the language, I could understand some words. I could make out “emperor” and “found out” and “daughter”. I had no idea what was going on.


“That’s when they took me away. I tried to fight as hard as I could. My father could do nothing, for he was lying lifelessly on the ground. My poor mother lay next to him, tears in her eyes. My little sister was screaming and crying as none of my older sisters made any kind of effort to help me. They just sat there, looking at me as if I were a stranger. After that, all I remember is seeing the pained expression on my brother’s face.


“I went to work as a servant for Zayviar Sun and his family. I became friends with his daughter, Hai. A few days ago, she helped me put together a plan to escape. I got caught. I asked her to defend me, but she completely betrayed me.”


I looked over at Lyle. I thought he was going to cry.


“Wow,” he said.


“Yes. I wanted to get out of there so bad,” I looked at the ground. “I guess I got what I wanted.”


Lyle just stared at me.


“Well we’ve got to escape,” he said.


“What?”


“We can’t just sit here. We have to get you back to India.”


“Lyle, that’s not possible.”


“Or is it?”


Just then, the soldiers were bringing in another prisoner. She was kicking and screaming. It was a Chinese girl. They put her in the cell to my left. As soon as she turned around, I knew exactly who it was.


“Lana,” I said. She looked at me.


“What, slave?”


“Ok, last time I checked, you were a slave too. Second, my name is Elina. Why are you here?”


“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.


I turned back to Lyle.


“Continue, Lyle.”


“Grab one of those pins out of your hair,” he whispered.


He pointed to the lock on the cell door and made a turning motion with his hand. Lana’s eyes widened.


“You’re trying to escape!”


“Be quiet!” Lyle and I yelled.


She had awakened a few other prisoners.


“You can come with us if you want, I don’t care. But know that it’s at your own risk,” I said.


I quietly slipped the hair pin into the lock and turned. It had worked. I was saved. This was my second chance to escape. I ran over and unlocked Lyle and Lana’s cells. I saw Hai’s bag that they had taken away from me. I grabbed it and picked it up. “Let’s go,” I said.

Part II


We got up to check the back door. It was locked.


“Hmm,” I thought. Lyle tapped my shoulder.


“Look!” he said. He pointed upward to a hole in the ceiling. It was small, but I was sure we could all fit.


“Let’s try it.”


Lyle helped me onto his shoulders. I pushed my way through the hole.


“Yes!” I whispered.


Some of the prisoners groaned, yet they were too tired and some too weak to protest.


Lyle then lifted Lana through the hole. We reached down to grab him and pull him up.


“We’re out,” I said. “We did it.” My plan had actually worked.


“Ok…what now?” Lana asked.


“Now we head to India,” said Lyle.


“Which way is that?”


“Southeast,” I said.


It was so dark outside that we couldn’t see much. The moon was hidden behind a bunch of clouds. I was still shocked that I had actually escaped. It wasn’t nearly the end, however. Now, I had to somehow get all the way from Ch’ang-an to India. It would not be easy.


“And so we’re walking there? On foot?” Lana asked.


“How else would we do it?” asked Lyle.


Lana’s face lit up.


“We can get my uncle’s horse and cart.”


“What?” I asked.


“How?” asked Lyle.


“His house is only a little while away. We can go steal it,” Lana said.

“Are you trying to get us sent back into prison?” Lyle asked.


“No. I just think it would be better than walking all the way to India.”


“Ok,” I said. “Let’s do it.”


We started on our way to Lana’s uncle’s house.


“This is insane,” Lyle said.


“If it can get us out of here faster, I’ll do it,” I said.


We snuck around to the back of the house.


“There it is,” said Lana.


“Great,” I said.


I jumped in, then Lana, then Lyle.


“This is insane,” he muttered under his breath.


“Ok, we’ve got the cart, now we need the horse,” I said.


“No problem. This horse knows me. I can easily get him out without making a sound,” said Lana.


She went to get the horse. She led him over to the cart.


“Let’s go,” she said.


I pulled the reins on the horse. He started walking.


“This is unbelievable,” said Lyle.


“Lyle, calm down,” I said.


After a few hours or so of riding in the little cart, Lyle said,


“I’m so hungry.”


“Me too,” said Lana.


I took some rice out of my bag.


“Here.”


I gave each of them some rice.


We took turns staying awake and steering the horse. I got so tired that I accidentally fell asleep while Lana and Lyle were both asleep too…


When I woke up, I felt something cool and wet on my legs. I looked down. The cart was lying in a shallow pond.


“Lyle, Lana, wake up!” I said.


“What?” Lyle asked.


“Ah!” Lana screamed.


“Calm down. It’s just water,” said Lyle.


“Get me out of here!”


“Lana calm down! It’s just a little pond.”


Lyle and I helped Lana out of the pond.


“What’s your problem?” Lyle asked her.


“I just don’t do water, ok?”


“I guess.”


“Where are we?” I asked.


“Where’s the horse?”


“Oh, no,” said Lana


We looked around. He was nowhere to be found.


“Beautiful. This is just beautiful,” Lana said.


“It’s fine,” I said. “We’ll just walk around until we find someone generous enough to give us a ride.”


We kept walking in the direction which I believed to be south, until we reached a city.


“Civilization!” Lana screamed.


“Lana!” said Lyle. “You cannot just go into a city like that. We don’t know these people.”


“He’s right,” I said.


“Fine,” said Lana.


We crouched down behind a cart and looked around for a while. There were camels, lots of silk and gold, and people speaking all kinds of languages. They were trading all kinds of things. Then, I realized where we were. We were in the small city of Chou Zing. It was just north of Tibet. It was right on the Silk Road.


“Ok,” I said. “Just act normal.”


We walked and walked until finally we saw a field off in the distance.


“What’s that?” Lyle asked.


We kept walking further.


“It’s food!” Lana screamed.


“Yes!”


We ran into the field. It was filled with delicious looking foods that I had never seen before. We started eating. We just ate and ate and ate.


“What is this stuff?” Lyle asked.


“I haven’t a clue,” Lana said.


We rolled around in the field for a while.


“Ok. I think we should start walking again,” I said.


“Good idea,” said Lyle. “Lana, come on.”


We started off again. Lana trailed behind Lyle and I. She was singing a song. I recognized it was a song my mother used to sing all the time. That song was how I began to love music so much.


It was starting to get dark.


“Let’s stop and find a place to sleep.”


“Yes,” said Lana. “I’m really tired.”


We lied down under a tree in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea where we were. I would ask someone in the morning. For now, it was time to rest.


I looked up at the sky, then at my new found friends. I couldn’t wait to get home. I could already smell that fresh, homey air. It smelled of my life that I longed to have back.


I awoke the next morning to the breeze whipping past my face. I turned over to see if Lana and Lyle were already up. Lyle had his arm draped across Lana. I started laughing out loud.


“Haha,” I laughed. “Hahahaha.”


Lana must have heard me, because she woke up.


“What’s funny?” she asked.


I pointed at Lyle’s arm.


“Lyle!” she said.


He woke up.


“What?” he asked groggily.


“Get your arm off of me right now.”


I started laughing again.


Lana rolled her eyes.


“Oh, sorry,” Lyle said with a smirk on his face.


“Anyway,” said Lana. “I’m thirsty. We should go find a river or a lake or something.”


“Sure,” I said.


We started walking. I don’t know how long we walked, but it was a long time. At last, we came to a river.


“Anybody know what river this is?” Lyle asked.


“Nope,” said Lana.


“Not a clue,” I said.


An old woman came to the river with a pot and got some water.


“Excuse me,” I said.


She looked at me.


“What is this river called?”


She didn’t answer. She started speaking Tibetan. I was still speaking Chinese. I went to the back of my mind and dug out the words in Tibetan.


“The West River,” she replied.


“It’s the West River,” I told Lyle and Lana.


I knew now that we had to be in Tibet.


“Ok, I think we need to go south,” I said.


“Alright,” said Lyle.

After some time, we came to a town. There were people dancing, eating, drinking, and having so much fun.


“Let’s go join that party!” Lana said.


She ran ahead of Lyle and me. We smiled at each other. We ran in and joined the celebration. Lyle grabbed Lana and started dancing with her. I went straight for the food. After I had had something to eat and drink, I joined in the dancing too. There were so many people. The only time I had seen a bigger celebration was the festival that was always held for the emperor’s birthday back in China. That made me think of what Hai was doing in Ch’ang-an. Then I thought, “Never mind.” I don’t want to know.


I noticed this boy who was standing over by a camel. He looked suspicious. I walked over to him.


“Hello,” I said.


“Hi.”


“What are you doing?”


“Nothing.”


“Oh.”


I don’t know why, but the boy still seemed suspicious to me.


Maybe it’s nothing, I thought.


Lyle came up behind me.


“Come on, dance!” he said.


“Alright.” I started dancing with him.


I was still eyeing the boy who was standing over by the camel. I saw him take a piece of gold out of the bag that was attached to it. He slipped it into his pocket.


“Hey!” I yelled.


People stopped dancing and looked at me.


“That boy! He stole gold off of that camel!”


The boy started running. Two men ran after him. They dragged him back and retrieved the gold from his pockets.


“That girl,” one man said, and pointed at me. “She’s a hero!”


People started cheering and clapping. I was apparently a hero. It turned out that the gold belonged to a relative of a friend of the king. The people picked me up and started chanting and carrying me toward what must have been the king’s palace. I saw Lana and Lyle running to keep up behind these Tibetan people. The doors to the palace were thrust open. They set me down in front of a man who had to be the king. He whispered something to a man who was standing at the right of his throne, then looked at me and smiled.


“If there is anything your heart desires, let your request be made known. I will grant it.”


I just looked around and tried to locate Lana and Lyle.


“Hmm, uh, I want to get back home.”


The king looked at me.


“Home? Where is your home?”


“My home,” I said. “Is in northern India. In the town of-”


“Halshi,” said a voice in the crowd.


Everyone turned to look at the person who had said it.


It was a boy. He was tall, he had dark skin, he had black hair, and from where I was standing, he looked as if he were about twenty years old. He looked up, and I noticed another feature. This boy had sapphire eyes. I almost cried. I knew exactly who this boy was. It was my brother, Ekodar. He was the only person I knew besides my mother who had blue eyes. It was him. It was really him. I ran over and hugged him. He looked at me, and started crying like a baby.


“It’s you,” he said. “It really is you. My baby sister. She’s returned.”


I couldn’t do anything but cry. I couldn’t talk; I could only cry. The crowd of people started cheering. Lana and Lyle had huge smiles on their faces. They ran up to me and gave me a hug.


“Who are they?” my brother asked me.


I wiped the tears off of my face.


“This is Lyle, and that’s Lana.”


“It is a pleasure to meet you.”


“Where are mother and father? And Neelam, and Nilakshi, and Nina? And Navistha, sweet little Navistha. Where are they?” I asked my brother.


The grin on his face faded.


“I think we should go home,” he said.


“Wait.”


“No. I’m taking you home.”


Lana, Lyle, and I followed Ekodar out of the king’s palace. The king, as he promised, had provided us with a camel to take us home. Lana fell asleep with her head resting on Lyle’s shoulder. Lyle fell asleep soon after. I couldn’t sleep, for I was way too excited to see my family again. It was like a dream. I had dreamed of being back home for the past two years. I was here. I was finally here.


Ekodar stopped the camel. I ran to our little shack. It was exactly how I remembered it. The slanted roof, the bark peeling off of the sides. If you had asked me two years ago what I’d thought of it, you would’ve gotten, ‘It’s ugly. It’s too small. I can hardly move around in it. I hate it.’ If you were to ask me now, I’d say, ‘It’s beautiful. I love it. It’s great. It’s my home.’


I pushed open the door.


“Mother, father! I’m home!” I yelled.


I got no answer.


“Mother? Father?”


Ekodar had appeared in the doorway. He was crying again. This time, they were not tears of joy.


“They’re not here.”


“What do you mean they’re not here?” I asked.


“After they… took you…” my brother started.


The tears started rolling down my face again. I knew exactly where this was going.


“They killed them. They killed them both.”


“No,” I said. “It’s not true! It’s not! It can’t be!”


I started sobbing. My brother came and held me.


“I’m going to go in there, and they’re going to be there, waiting for me with open arms, crying and hugging me, and kissing me, and telling me how much they’ve missed me. And we’re going to live happily in our little shack.”


“It is, Elina. It is true. They’re gone.”


I fell on the ground. My tears seeped into our dirt floor.


At that moment, all of the memories of my mother and father ran through my head at once; the hugs and kisses and laughs, all of the times they made me do things I didn’t want to do, all of the times they disciplined me only because they loved me.


And all I could do was wish that I was dead too.