Beloved Sheikh

“Who—” Zara began, but he interrupted her.

“Do not waste your breath with asking questions. I will answer nothing and we have a long, hard way to go.”

He hadn’t been exaggerating. Zara had lost track of time. She had rarely been on a horse for longer than an hour, and she was sitting sidesaddle, one hip thrust higher than the other in a posture that became increasingly uncomfortable as the time passed. She was glad when numbness set in, but even that was painful.

“I must blindfold you now.”

She surfaced from the daze she had sunk into, and wondered how long they had been riding. The horse was covered in lather, and obviously miserable, but doing his best for his master.

Jalal lifted an arm and pulled the large keffiyeh from his head. “Wrap this around your head and eyes.”

They must be near some landmark that she would be able to identify. She prayed that this meant that he intended to keep her alive—for otherwise why bother about what she saw?—and sobbed once with the relief of a fear she hadn’t been letting herself feel.

She cast one last glance around her, trying to memorize the scene, imprint it on her mind, as she reached to take the cloth and wrap her face in it. Ahead there was a mound of rock, made huge with shadow. She thought she heard the sound of running water in the distance, but the desert was full of moonshadows that made it hard to distinguish features.

A buffet of wind caught them then, and her golden robe suddenly snapped and billowed out behind her.... Zara thought, It’s the one certain marker I could leave—if she could drop it without his noticing. If they found it, Prince Rafi would recognize it, she was certain. He would know that she had passed this way... if anyone, nomad or trader, ever passes this way, she told herself ruthlessly. And if the wind hasn’t buried it, and if the nomad takes it to his prince . . . but she had to try something. If she gave up hope now she was lost.

Under cover of wrapping her head, Zara released one arm from the beautiful robe. Now it was held on only by one arm. She finished wrapping the scarf around her eyes. Then blindly, inch by inch, working by touch alone, she drew the robe into a bundle in her lap.

The horse, very tired now, struggled on for minutes while she nearly suffocated with fear behind the constricting cloth. At last it was reined to a very slow walk. Zara tensed for action. She sensed an echo, their approach to something large. They were about to enter some place. Pulling her arm from the robe, she screamed and began to struggle.

She was no match for the bandit’s strength, and her rebellion lasted hardly more than a second. But the robe was now loose in her hands. “Bend down, it is low,” he ordered curtly, pushing her flat against the horse’s neck and bending over her. This was her last chance. Lying over the horse’s neck, Zara dragged the crushed robe from under her and flung it away. A moment later the sounds told her that they were entering something like a cave.

“Cover your face,” he ordered again.

Behind them, the golden cloth glittered for a moment in the moonlight as it fell to the desert floor.

Rafi ran all the way to the helicopter and pulled futilely at the door before he realized that Ammar had locked it. Precautions against Jalal, he reflected grimly, but this would give the bandit a head start he would probably never lose. Rafi ran back towards the tent, calling for the Companions. But the party was noisy, drowning his cry as it had drowned the sound of the horse and Zara’s scream.

By the time he had reached the tent again, he knew too much time had passed. The bandit could be heading anywhere, and in darkness his trail would not be easy to follow. At last Rafi was close enough for his cries to be heard, and the party was silenced. There were shouts, and the Companions came spilling out of the tent on the alert. All the archaeological team followed, calling questions.

Rafi curbed his impatience to be gone, told them what had occurred, and gave orders for some to take the land vehicles in a search that would be virtually useless. Even if they could find the trail, the land vehicles would not be able to follow everywhere a horse led.

“He galloped east till he was out of sight,” he said. “But he is not a fool. He might be headed anywhere.” Seconds later he set off running across the sand back towards the helicopter, with Arif and Ammar silently pacing him.

“What a fool to have set no guard tonight!” he berated himself as they flung themselves into the cockpit and Ammar started the rotors slowly beating.

“Shall we go to his camp, or follow his trail?” demanded Arif as they lifted off.

“Follow his trail,” said Rafi briefly, straining to see against the deep moonshadows on the desert.

“His camp is still on the other side of the river, is it not?” Ammar said, as he flicked on the landing light. All three peered out, but this was not a military helicopter and it was not a powerful searchlight. “He can only get across if he goes to the bridge. Why not meet him there, Lord?”