Bint Hazine: A Tale of Ecstasy
J.J.M. Czep
512 BC.
The great King of Wu tested Master Sun Tzu, commanding him to train the royal harem of 180 concubines as soldiers. Sun Tzu, a man of great honor and military prowess, divided the tittering females in two companies and appointed the king’s favorites as commanders. The concubines giggled at Sun Tzu’s order. Sun Tzu told the king that his position as general was to ensure the soldiers understood the order.
Upon reiteration of the command, the harem giggled once more. Sun Tzu ordered the execution of the favored concubines. Of course, the king protested! Sun Tzu however, explained, it was the position of these appointed officers to enforce soldiers’ compliance to the general. Once appointed, it was a general’s duty to carry out his mission, even against royal protest. Following this test of character, and the execution of the king’s favorite girls, both harem companies performed their maneuvers flawlessly under the rule of newly appointed officers.
1690’s AD.
“Un! Deux! Trois! Quatre! Cinq! Six! Sept! Huit! Neuf!” Gennie’s voice carried over the deck as the tip of her blade glinted in the midday sun.
Gennie shook her head as she watched the disheveled attempt at synchronicity before her. “You are dancers, are you not?”
“Only some, Korsana.” The front most woman in veils and silks rotated her shoulder as she allowed the sword in her delicate hand to droop.
“Do you really think this is going to work?” Blaze’s sarcasm was an unwelcome tone in Gennie’s ear as the man sidled up beside her. “You aren’t very good at the sword, what makes you think you can teach them?”
She sighed as she scanned the clutch of harem hens that had opted to join Ecstasy as escape from cloistered captivity under the Sultana’s rule.
“Non.” Gennie jammed the cup of the sword into Blaze’s chest. “Voila.”
Short-lived relief spread across the collective weary brows of the harem girls.
“Non, non, non!” Gennie marched toward the closest woman and grabbed her sword hand.
The woman pulled away and crossed her delicate arms wrapping the silk veil over her soft shoulders, leaving Gennie holding the weapon.
Gennie’s eyes caught the flash of gems covering the woman’s breasts. “Mais, possible.” She tore the veil from the woman’s shoulders. “This only restricts your movement.”
“Ay!” The woman grabbed at the veil, “Emshi!”
Gennie forced the weapon into the harem girl’s open arms. The veil, she held away. It was the glint in Gennie’s eye though that struck the woman. “Do you think you are still in your cozy harem?” Gennie’s gaze fell upon each of the dozen or so pretty faces arrayed on the deck. “You are on my ship, my Ecstasy. I was not slave to your Sultana par ce que I was willing to fight.”
“We fought.” The interruption was swallowed back as it hung in the air. “We did.” The speaker looked about at her harem sisters for support.
“C’est vrai,” Gennie swept the veil around her head and shoulders. “dans the palace, against a few eunuchs.” Gennie gestured crudely at her own crotch, “Practically women, aussi. Mais, you must continue to fight out here, against even the likes of assassins!” Gennie’s finger swept in Blaze’s direction.
The harem girls looked at one another.
“You are on my ship. You will earn your way.” Blaze staggered back as Gennie snatched the sword from the his hands.
“Korsana, dit.” Gennie’s lips formed each word carefully. “Beddek hada?” She shook the veil.
The attention of all harem girls were on Gennie and this one of theirs that stood defiant before the one who freed them..
The woman’s eyes darkened, determination crossed her jaw; her delicate hands gripped the sword.
“Na'am – Aaywa” She took the stance that Gennie trained, but she did not count as the pirate woman.
She looked over her shoulder and nodded to her harem sisters. An unspoken command, one Gennie knew well the power of, was given.
“Wahid!” She swung the scimitar high over her head and drew it through the space between her and the Korsana.
Gennie did not flinch, though she saw the sudden shift of the shadow behind her and allowed a smirk to dance across her face.
“Ithnan!” She drew the upturned blade to project from the point just at the waist of her sheer black harem pants.
A second veil filled Gennie’s hands as another, in a shimmering green bra, took up the blade she had carried from the Sultana’s treasury.
“Thalatha!” More voices and more blades cut the horizon with unnerving synchronicity.
Gennie took a step back, to close the space between her and the assassin, she smiled and tipped her head back to look up at the man.
“Arba’a!” They sliced the horizon a second turn.
Veils lay in pools at the feet of the women in only glittering bras and sheer flowing black pants. Gennie nodded, her eyes glinting like the bosoms of her new army.
“Khamsa!” A wave of soft, graceful shoulders jutted to the fore as blades struck the boards of the ship like a roll of thunder.
“Sitta! Sab’a!” Gennie smirked at Blaze’s flinch from the imagined score to the back of one knee then the other.
“I cannot wait to show the boys.” Gennie imagined the response this display might draw from de Xavier, or better still, in Gennie’s mind, the sword master himself, Theodorick.
“Thamaniya!” The harem’s dance thrust their other shoulder forward.
It was the glittering final thrust that drew Gennie’s hands in applause.
“Tis’a!” Every perfectly pampered arm leveled at the heart of their invisible adversaries.
The beauty of this closing pose was worth the afternoon of shade-less repetition of the maneuvers.
“Tu voit.” Gennie slapped her hand against Blaze’s arm and snatched the blade from his grasp. “Je sais. Cette la, mes femmes des treasure.” Gennie paused. “Non, my bint Hazine.” She slapped the blade against the side of her leg and shoved the veils into Blaze’s arms.
“Allez! Encore!” She smiled directly at the first concubine, the one she unveiled. “Mais, in your tongue.”
The woman’s eyes lowered a moment in obedience. “As you say, Korsana.”
“Voila.” Gennie tapped the back of her hand against the assassin’s chest. “What do you say now, mon ami?”
Blaze did not immediately respond as his eyes were dazzled by the glistening bodies clothed in glittering attire as the sun glinted off the shifting edges of synchronized scimitars.
Gennie continued her saunter to her cabin, leaving Blaze to look from bint Hazine to the haughty captain. A moment more of contemplation was all he needed before following.
Blaze paced to the small window of the main deck cabin, leaving Gennie to bow over her logs and pages.
“And now that you’ve trained them,” Blaze stared in wonder at the stunning killing machine Gennie had forged, “Your shimmering Spartans,” he quipped, “what will you do with them?”
Gennie did not look from her task of jotting notes of the day and the tally in the number out on the deck. “As I see, I will have my very own personal guard.” She lifted her eyes to check if Blaze had his face turned to her. “Do you not think it suitable?”
Blaze turned, his expression one of pre-assumed annoyance as Gennie hoped. “I am pretty sure no matter how well you train them, they’ll still just be harem girls who’ve only ever won a battle with a lot of crying and pouting.”
It was again Gennie’s quiet smirk that made Blaze realize how dangerous these women really were.
“They really are very distracting in all those jewels.” Gennie sighed and wistfully turned the feathered quill against her cheek.
“Mesmerizing.” Blaze gripped the slot in the door with whitening fingertips and flipped the latch.
“I will allow you to borrow them,” Gennie rested her chin on threaded fingers. Blaze’s pale eyes turned only slightly from the dancers.
“Only on occasion, should you have need.”
His eyes were again on bint Hazine, his consideration of the offer turning in his mind. “Just so long as I get to keep my gun.” He grumbled.
“Oh of course,” Gennie’s eyes were in her books again. “I would not dream of taking it when you are out with the ladies.” She made certain to catch the assassin’s eye. “And you would not dream of leaving a ship that has become just ever so much more interesting.”
The music of bint Hazine singing out the numbers in the tongue of the Sultana floated in as Blaze pushed open the door of the cabin.
“Non, non,” Gennie waggled the feather at Blaze before he could close the door. “Please, leave it open, mon ami, I do like a bit of music while I work.”
Blaze rolled his eyes and marched away, leaving the door open wide.
There be seven deadly sins,
Sure as there’s as many seas,
But never, in all history,
Have murderous beauties such as these,
Trained in dance and arts, grace and fair
By rulers unfair, cruel and without care,
Glittering treasures from shores of every sea,
Freed by one marked a devil’s queen,
To live as free women,
Shimmering beauties
Re-schooled in arts most deadly,
These are bint Hazine.
Meet the inspiration for this story and watch them dance at Phoenix Comic Con 2012! Joining with The DREAD Fleet, bellydance troupe bint Hazine take the stage in Check, Mate! an original script by: J.J.M. Czep. The story of Ecstasy and her fellow ships of The DREAD Fleet continues in the live, hour long performance at the Phoenix Convention Center, May 27th and 28th. For more information see the Phoenix Comic Con site.
Copyright: The DREAD Fleet and J.J.M. Czep
