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‘You’ve been to the souk again? Do you have no sense of danger?’
Yasmin ignored her and her voice was an awed whisper. ‘They say his heart is frozen into ice and only the right woman can melt it. It’s a bit like the legend of the Sword in the Stone you read me when I was little.’
‘Oh, Yasmin, grow up! A man’s heart cannot be frozen into ice unless he finds himself lost in Antarctica with insufficient equipment. A heart is responsible for pumping blood around the body. It cannot be “frozen” or “broken”.’ Exasperated, Layla wondered how two sisters could be so different. Their experience was the same, except that Layla had protected Yasmin from the worst of her father’s actions. ‘This isn’t legend, this is real. Stop romanticising everything.’
‘They think he will come.’ This time there was an undertone of excitement in her sister’s voice. ‘He has been playing a waiting game while our father and Hassan plotted. With our father dead, he has to have a plan for taking up his rightful place as Sheikh. Hassan is terrified. The council is terrified. They have extra guards on the doors at night. They’ve sent patrols into the desert, although goodness knows why because everyone knows Raz Al Zahki knows the desert better than anyone. No one is sleeping because they’re afraid he might enter the Citadel at night and murder them in their beds. Frankly, I wish he’d just get on with it. If I bumped into him in the dark I’d show him the way.’
Layla covered her sister’s lips with her fingers. ‘You need to be careful what you say.’
‘Why? What else can they do to me? They’re splitting us up! I’m going to America and you’re going to marry Hassan. How much worse can it get?’
‘I’m not marrying Hassan.’ Layla made her decision. ‘I’m not going to let that happen.’
‘How can you stop it? Hassan can only be the next ruler if he marries you. That’s a pretty powerful motivation.’
‘Then he mustn’t marry me.’
Yasmin looked at her with pity. ‘He is going to make you.’
‘If he can’t find me, he can’t make me.’ Not daring to give too much thought to what she was about to do, Layla sprinted to her father’s dressing room and removed a couple of robes. She thrust one at her sister. ‘Put this on. Cover your hair and as much of your face as you can. Wait here for me behind the curtain until I come and fetch you. I need to get something from the library before we leave.’
‘The library? How can you think of books right now?’
‘Because a book can be many things—a friend, an escape, a teacher—’ Layla broke off and hoped her sister didn’t notice her high colour. ‘Never mind. The important thing is that we’re going away from here. It will be like the game of Hide we played as children.’ She caught her sister’s horrified glance and wished she hadn’t used that reference. Both of them knew what that game had really meant. She changed the subject quickly. ‘Those horses you love so much—can you actually ride one if you have to?’
‘Of course!’
Her sister’s hesitation was so brief Layla told herself she’d imagined it.
‘And I’ve read extensively on the theory of riding and the history of the Arabian horse, so between us I’m sure we’ll be fine.’ She hoped she sounded more convincing than she felt. ‘We’ll take the back route to the stables and ride into the desert from there.’
‘The desert? Why are we riding into the desert?’
Layla felt her mouth move even though her brain was telling her this was a terrible idea. ‘We’re going to find Raz Al Zahki.’
* * *
The wind blew across the desert, bringing with it whispers of the Sheikh’s death.
Raz Al Zahki stood at the edge of the camp and stared into the darkness of the night. ‘Is it truth or rumour?’
‘Truth.’ Salem stood next to him, shoulder to shoulder. ‘It’s been confirmed by more than one source.’
‘Then it is time.’ Raz had learned long before to keep his feelings buried, and he kept them buried now, but he felt the familiar ache of tension across his shoulders. ‘We leave for the city tonight.’
Abdul, his advisor and long-time friend stepped forward. ‘There is something else, Your Highness. As you predicted, Hassan plans to marry the eldest princess in a matter of hours. Preparations for the wedding are already underway.’
‘Before her father’s body is even cold?’ Raz gave a cynical laugh. ‘Her grief clearly overwhelms her.’
‘Hassan must be at least forty years older than her,’ Salem murmured. ‘One wonders what she gains from the match.’
‘There is no mystery there. She continues to live in a palace and enjoy benefits that should never have been hers to begin with.’ Raz stared at the horizon. ‘She is the daughter of the most ruthless man who ever ruled Tazkhan. Don’t waste your sympathy.’
‘If Hassan marries the girl it will be harder for you to challenge the succession legally.’
‘Which is why I intend to make sure the wedding does not take place.’
Abdul shot him a startled look. ‘So you intend to go ahead with your plan? Even though what you’re suggesting is—’
‘The only option available.’ Raz cut him off, hearing the hardness in his own tone. It was the same hardness that ran right through him. Once, he’d been capable of warmth, but that part of him had died along with the woman he’d loved. ‘We have considered every other option, and—’ He broke off as he heard a commotion in the darkness and then lifted a hand as his bodyguards emerged silently to flank him.
They were men who had followed him for fifteen years, since the brutal slaying of his father. Men who would die for him.
Abdul thrust himself in front of Raz and that gesture touched him more than any other, because his trusted advisor was neither physically fit nor skilled with weapons.
Gently, but firmly, he moved him to one side, but Abdul protested.
‘Go. Go! It could be the attempt on your life we have been expecting.’
Aware that Salem had his hand on his weapon, Raz fixed his gaze on the slim figure of a boy whose arms were gripped by two of his men. ‘If my death were the objective then surely they would give the responsibility to someone I could not so easily crush.’
‘We found him wandering in the desert along the border with Zubran. He appears to be alone. He says he has a message for Raz Al Zahki.’
Knowing that his men were protecting his identity, Raz signalled for them to bring their captive forward.
His hands were tied and as they released him the boy stumbled and fell to his knees. Raz stared down at him, noticing absently that his robes swamped his thin body.
It was Salem who spoke. Salem, his brother, who rarely left his side. ‘What message do you have for Raz Al Zahki, boy?’
‘I have to speak to him in person.’ The words were mumbled and barely audible. ‘And I have to be alone when I do it. What I have to say is just for him and no other.’
The guard closest to him gave a grunt of disgust. ‘Someone like you wouldn’t get close enough to Raz Al Zahki to wave from a distance, let alone be alone with him, and you should be grateful for that. He’d eat you alive.’
‘I don’t care what he does to me as long as he hears what I have to say. Take me to him. Please.’
The boy kept his head bowed and something in the set of those narrow shoulders drew Raz’s attention.
Ignoring Salem’s attempts to hold him back, he stepped forward. ‘So you’re not afraid?’
There was a brief pause. The wind blew across the desert, whipping up sand and catching the edges of the boy’s robe. He clutched it desperately.
‘Yes, I am afraid. But not of Raz Al Zahki.’
‘Then you need to be educated.’ The guard dragged his captive to his feet and the boy gasped in pain. ‘We’ll keep him here tonight and question him again in the morning.’
‘No!’ The boy struggled frantically in the man’s grip. ‘By morning it will be too late. I have to speak to him now. Please. The future of Tazkhan depends on it.’
Raz stared at the boy, half shrouded by robes that were too big for him. ‘Take him to my tent.’
Salem, Abdul and the guards looked at him in disbelief.
‘Do it,’ Raz said softly, but still the guards hesitated.
‘We’ll strip-search him first—’
‘Take him to my tent and then leave us.’
Abdul touched his arm, his voice low. ‘I have never before questioned your decisions, Your Highness, but this time I beg you, at least keep the guards with you.’
‘You think I can’t defend myself from someone half my height and weight?’
‘I think Hassan will try anything at this late stage in the game. He is frightened and desperate and a desperate man should never be underestimated. I think it could be a trap.’
‘I agree.’ Salem’s voice was hard. ‘I’ll come with you.’
Raz put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘Your love and loyalty means more to me than you can possibly know, but you must trust me.’
‘If anything happened to you—’
Raz felt the weight of it settle onto his shoulders. He, better than anyone, knew that there were some promises that shouldn’t be made. ‘Make sure I’m not disturbed.’ He dismissed his bodyguards with a single movement of his hand and strode into his tent.
He closed the flap, muffling the sound of the wind and protecting them from prying eyes.
The boy was on his knees in the furthest corner of the tent, his hands still tied.
Raz studied him for a moment and then strolled over to him and cut the rope with a swift movement of his knife. ‘Stand up.’
The boy hesitated and then stood in a graceful movement, only to fall again a moment later.
‘I don’t think I can stand—’ The words were uttered through clenched teeth. ‘My legs are stiff from riding and I injured my ankle when I fell.’
Raz looked down at the slender body bowed at his feet. ‘Tell me why you’re here.’
‘I’ll talk to Raz Al Zahki himself, and no one else.’
‘Then speak,’ Raz commanded softly, and the boy lifted his head in shock.
Under the concealing robes, dark eyes widened. ‘You’re him?’
‘I’m the one asking the questions.’ Raz sheathed his knife. ‘And the first thing I want to know is what a woman is doing creeping around my camp in the middle of the night. What are you doing walking into the lion’s den unprotected, Princess?’
* * *
Layla was in agony. Physical agony from her fall from the horse, and emotional agony from the knowledge that her sister was missing and alone in the vast emptiness of the baking desert and it was all her fault.
She was the one who had suggested this stupid, crazy plan. She, who never did anything stupid or crazy. She, who studied all available evidence before she made a decision, had acted on impulse. Which just proved that a cautious nature wasn’t to be mocked.
It would have been better had Hassan sent Yasmin to America. At least then Layla would have known she was alive.
As it was, Yasmin was lost, and she was now a captive in the desert camp of Raz Al Zahki, a man who had more reason to hate her than any other.
A man who knew who she was.
Staring into those cold black eyes, she suddenly knew the meaning of the phrase ‘between a rock and a hard place.’ If her cousin was the hard place then this man was the rock. He stood legs spread, handsome face unsmiling as he stared at her. His body had the muscular structure of a warrior’s, his shoulders broad and hard. She knew he had suffered terribly and yet there was no sign of suffering in face. This man wasn’t broken, he was whole and strong—at least on the outside. There was nothing soft about him. Nothing vulnerable. Even before he’d revealed his identity she’d sensed his place at the head of the pack. He had the confidence and authority of a man born to lead others, and even though Layla had expected nothing less still he intimidated her.
‘You knew who I was the whole time?’
‘Within five seconds. You have a memorable face, Princess. And very distinctive eyes.’
It was the first personal comment anyone had ever made to her and it took her by surprise.
She’d studied him on paper and committed all the facts to memory, from his year and place of birth to his impressive military career and his degree in engineering. She knew he was a skilled rider and an authority on the Arabian horse. She knew all that, but was only just realising that facts could only tell you so much about a man.
They couldn’t tell you that his eyes were darker than the desert at night or that the power he commanded on paper was surpassed a thousand times by the power he commanded in person. They couldn’t tell you that those eyes were capable of seeing right through a person to the very centre of their being. They couldn’t tell you that meeting those eyes would make your heart thunder like the hooves of a hundred wild horses pounding across the desert plain.
She was fast realising that a list of dates and qualifications didn’t convey strength or charisma.
Unsettled that the facts had given her such an incomplete picture, Layla remembered what her sister had said about the rumours. That Raz Al Zahki was a man who knew women. Before he’d fallen in love he’d been wild, and afterwards he’d locked it all away. Every emotion. Every feeling.
‘How do you know me?’
‘I make a point of knowing my enemy.’
‘I am not your enemy.’ And yet she could hardly blame him for thinking that, could she? His family had suffered terribly at the hands of hers. They stood on opposite sides of an enormous rift that had divided their families for generations.
‘Which brings me to my second question—where is Hassan? Or is he so lacking in courage he sends a woman with his messages?’
Layla shivered, but whether it was his tone or his words that affected her she didn’t know.
‘I’m not here because of Hassan. I was with my sister, Yasmin, but I fell from the horse.’ She saw his beautiful mouth tighten. ‘I’m sorry—I—you have to help me find her. Please. She’s alone in the desert and she won’t have a clue how to survive.’ The thought filled her with despair but still he showed no emotion. No sympathy. Nothing.
‘So where is Hassan?’
‘He could be back at the palace, or he could be out there looking for us. I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know? And yet this is the man you’re supposed to be marrying in a matter of hours.’
And if Hassan found Yasmin first—
His words slowly seeped into her numb brain. ‘You know about the wedding?’
‘I know everything.’
‘If you think I want to marry Hassan then clearly you don’t know everything.’ The tent was dimly lit, but there was enough light for her to see the flash of surprise in his eyes.
‘How did you leave, if not with his consent?’
‘We escaped. My sister loves horses. She took the fastest horse in the stables. Unfortunately she omitted to tell me she couldn’t control him.’ Layla rubbed her palm across her bruised back. ‘He proved too much for both of us.’
