Goddess (30 page)

‘Revenge, Zar Boaz!’ Tariq continued. ‘I want you to take revenge.’

‘Me?’

‘What if I told you I could provide it?’

‘What are you talking about? Who are you?’

‘Time is short. They’ll be back soon. My name is not important. It’s what I can do for you that is. It’s what we can achieve together that counts.’

‘Let me go! I order you!’

‘Tell me you’ll test my theory.’

‘What?’ Boaz felt the world right itself. Suddenly all was normal. He was looking once again into Tariq’s slightly amused, normal face. He could almost believe he had imagined the previous few minutes of fright.

‘Test Lazar. Find a way. If I’m right, come and talk to me. I will help you.’

Boaz stared, uncomprehending, at the Grand Vizier. Before he could respond, however, the person in question strode into view. Behind him came the Khalid folk.

‘Leave me, Tariq,’ Boaz demanded, feeling a hollow victory in wresting back some superiority over the Grand Vizier. Tariq briefly bowed his head and withdrew.

‘Sorry we took so long, Fayiz,’ Lazar said sheepishly. ‘Is everything all right?’

‘Yes, Spur,’ Boaz said, nodding and forcing a smile, careful to keep his tone deferential in front of the Khalid. He picked up Jumo the falcon from his perch and handed him to Lazar.

He saw Lazar frown at him as he accepted the bird, now hooded for the night. ‘Where’s he going?’ he asked, indicating the departing Grand Vizier.

Boaz shrugged. ‘Probably to relieve himself now that you’re back. I hope you enjoyed yourself?’

Again Lazar frowned, looking over his shoulder to see that Salim a nd Ganya were settling themselves down to sleep near their camels. ‘Zar Boaz, you seem so unhappy. Is it about my time with the desert woman? You understand why I must go with Ganya, don’t you? She is leading us to the fortress.’

‘So you say. And what has she told you after tonight’s passion?’ He could see how the words inflamed Lazar, how the Spur took a steadying breath to suppress the irritation reflected in his face by the firelight.

‘You seem angry about this arrangement. Would you prefer that I stop seeing her?’

‘It’s of no consequence to me whom you lie
down with, Lazar, so long as it doesn’t encroach on my sensibilities.’

Lazar’s gaze narrowed and Boaz felt the full weight of his intense stare. ‘Forgive me, I’m not sure I understand what you are saying, Majesty,’ he replied softly. ‘Do you refer to the Valide? Because I thought—’

‘This has nothing to do with my mother, Lazar.’

‘But something is troubling you. I would be grateful to know what it is before tomorrow, when we face Arafanz.’

Boaz opened his mouth to respond but found his words frozen in this throat. ‘We’re here?’ he finally asked.

‘One hour’s ride, according to Ganya.’

‘I see. So you will want me to remain hidden from now on?’

Lazar nodded. ‘Tomorrow only Salim and I will leave the camp. I am leaving you with Ganya and Tariq. If anything should happen—anything at all that doesn’t seem right—you are to get on your camel and ride. Take Ganya with you. She will be able to sense the way back.’ He sat cross-legged, opposite the Zar. ‘I want no her oics. Forget me. I have my role. Yours is to stay safe.’

‘What about Tariq?’

‘Take him by all means but do not slow yourself down because of him. I mean this, Zar Boaz. You are all that matters, not Ganya and not the Grand Vizier. As it is, it galls me that I might put you in this position of fleeing alone.’

‘You didn’t put me here. I chose to be here.’

Lazar nodded. ‘And I still don’t fully understand why. However, your choice aside, I am still responsible for your safety.’

‘What is your plan for tomorrow?’

‘I have no plan.’ Lazar shrugged. ‘I can only assess the situation once I am faced with it. Whatever happens, I intend to return the Zaradine and your child to you unharmed, Majesty.’

Boaz swallowed, doubt creeping back to challenge his suspicions. If Lazar was so treacherous, why was he still behaving so loyally, acting so concerned? But Tariq’s taunt niggled.
Test him,
he had demanded. ‘Are you feeling confident?’ he asked, buying himself time to think.

Lazar shook his head ruefully. ‘I have to believe that I will bring Ana out of there alive, at whatever cost.’

‘You’re prepared to die,’ Boaz stated baldly.

‘Of course.’

‘Why?’

Lazar’s head snapped up from where he’d been watching sand sift through his fingers. He stared at Boaz with a look of frank disbelief.

‘I don’t mean to shock you, Lazar, but doesn’t it strike you as odd that a Galinsean prince—the heir to the throne, no less—is prepared to lay down his life on behalf of a mere odalisque, a young woman and former goatherd’s daughter?’

‘Zar Boaz, she is Zaradine. She is Absolute Favourite. I—’

‘She is not me! I can understand your loyalty to the Crown…to my father and subsequently to me. Many can’t, considering your background. But I do. I can’t comprehend why you’d give your life for one of my women.’

‘Perhaps because she carries your heir,’ Lazar said. Boaz noted that all incredulity had left his Spur’s voice, and was replaced with a wintry tone filled with warning. Boaz refused to be daunted, not now that he had started on this path.

‘People could be forgiven for reading far more into your apparent loyalty.’

‘Apparent loyalty? Zar Boaz, please explain precisely what you’re not saying. We are facing immense danger and I would rather do so knowing I have your full support. If there is something you want to tell me, or ask me, I will listen or answer truthfully as required.’

‘Will you, Lazar?’ Now the Spur looked at him, aghast. Boaz continued, ‘You see, I just don’t know if you are being entirely honest with me where Ana is concerned. You’ve never made a secret of your attachment to her. Initially we all put it down to the fact that, having found her in the foothills, purchas ed her and brought her away from her family at such a tender age, you felt responsible for her, as an uncle might a young niece. But the protection you offered her and the risk you took on her behalf struck me as beyond avuncular. And then you dived into the waters to rescue her from drowning, cradled her in your lap
and fought to breathe life back into her. But I heard from the Valide and the Grand Vizier that you were positively cold towards Ana throughout the journey to Romea. My mother assures me you all but ignored my wife. It doesn’t add up.’

He watched Lazar struggle to maintain control. ‘And your point, Your Majesty? What is it that you want me to explain?’

‘I want your assurance that this tremendous risk you take with your own life is on my behalf and not on Ana’s.’

‘I risk my life, Zar Boaz,’ Lazar growled, ‘for the heir to Percheron so that life in your realm might continue long after yours is dust. It is for Percheron that I have been loyal to Joreb, his son and his son’s son.’

‘But you are a king in your own right!’

‘I am a prince, that is all, Highness. My father still sits on his throne. And I renounced my right to the throne of Galinsea. I chose to be Percheron’s Spur. I did this before you were chosen as Zar and long before Ana came to your harem. I am first and foremost a loyal subject of Percheron.’

Boaz nodded. At any other time he would have felt ashamed of his behaviour. He despised his own insecurity where Ana was concerned. But deep suspicion, mirrored by the taunting words of the Grand Vizier, haunted his thoughts. He had not imagined Tariq’s hold over him earlier. There was magic at work, as both Lazar and Pez had warned. And if that were true, perhaps there were other
truths to be unearthed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Salim get up to take a drink. And he knew what he must do next.

‘Forgive me, Lazar. I think I am mistrusting of everything and everyone right now.’

Lazar glowered, but he said nothing other than, ‘Get some sleep, Zar Boaz. Tomorrow is almost upon us.’ Boaz could hear the Spur’s disappointment in his voice.

‘I must relieve myself.’

Lazar sighed and settled himself down on his sleeping rug. ‘Don’t stray too far.’

Boaz moved silently across the sand, ignoring Tariq, who seemed to be snoring lightly beside the embers, and only glancing at Ganya, who was seemingly already asleep as well. He found Salim hidden behind the camels, chanting quietly to himself.

‘Forgive me,’ Boaz said softly, realising the man was praying.

Salim’s eyes opened. ‘You speak Khalid?’

‘Very little,’ Boaz shrugged, holding his thumb and first finger barely apart.

The man smiled. ‘A little is all you need.’

‘I can’t sleep. Do you mind us talking?’

The man shrugged.

Boaz sat down and leaned against one of the camels. ‘Lazar told me you and he go tomorrow.’

‘It will be dangerous.’ The Khalid pointed behind him to where Ganya slept and back to Boaz. ‘You two must be safe.’

Boaz nodded, then tipped his head towards Tariq. ‘Lazar doesn’t care about him.’

The man’s grin widened. ‘Neither should you.’

‘I know that Lazar cares only for the girl, Ana. I haven’t seen her. Is she that lovely?’ He struggled to make himself understood whilst hating the deception he was employing.

But Salim grasped what he was saying. He nodded, smiled widely. ‘Ana, beautiful!’

‘He must care for her a lot,’ Boaz replied, running sand through his fingers in the same distracted way he’d watched Lazar do. He wanted to give the impression that he was merely a youngster making conversation. It was also a way to hide his shame.

‘Dara,’ Salim said, ‘plenty.’

Boaz grinned, loading it with a playful wickedness and further despising the insincerity of his methods as he touched his heart and sighed, a question in his eyes.

Salim echoed the gesture, placing his own hand over his heart. ‘Dara, dara,’ Salim repeated, obviously believing it mattered little to share this with a lad who clearly idolised his Spur, wanted to emulate the ways of the senior soldier.

‘He has given his heart to her?’ Boaz queried in halting Khalid.

Salim put his finger to his lips and nodded.

It took every ounce of c omposure but Boaz forced down his rage, smiling with resigned fury at the poor Khalid.

He didn’t have to shake Lazar awake. The Spur, he was sure, only ever dozed; in fact, his falcon, sitting on a stake in the sand, took more exception to being disturbed.

‘Lazar?’ Boaz whispered.

‘Yes?’

‘Tariq feels unwell.’

‘So what?’

‘I said I’d go with him.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I know you won’t. I told him you insist none of us wander off alone. He needs to relieve himself and it may take some time. I’m awake and not tired; I’ll go with him. You two can’t be left alone for longer than a few moments anyway before you’re at each other’s throats.’

‘I’ll come, it’s all right,’ Lazar grumbled, rousing himself from his blanket.

‘No. It is unnecessary. We’re just behind that dune,’ Boaz pointed, lying. ‘I’ll let Salim know as well. He’s still awake.’

‘You have a few minutes before I’ll arrive to make Tariq feel even more uncomfortable than he already is.’

Boaz shrugged and began walking over to where Tariq slept. The five of them camped the same way each evening. Salim and Ganya always lay next to the camels, Tariq and himself usually stuck fairly close, and Lazar always wrapped himself in his blanket
in a lonely spot well away from the four of them.

‘Grand Vizier,’ he hissed at the man’s ear.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’ve told Lazar you’re not well, that you need to relieve your bowels and that I’d come with you because he won’t let anyone move too far alone from here.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m ready to talk.’

The Grand Vizier clearly needed no further encouragement. He groaned softly as he slowly rolled over and pulled himself to his knees, clutching at Boaz for a helping hand. If Lazar was watching—as Boaz was sure he would be—he would see the Grand Vizier stagger slightly, leaning against his Zar as they disappeared towards the darkness of the dunes.

Boaz shivered in the cold of the night as his anger settled into something hard and unshakeable. His friends had betrayed him. Two people he trusted implicitly: Lazar, who he loved more than any other man, and Ana, who he loved above any other. He wished he could talk to Pez. It was eating away at him that the dwarf, with whom he shared his most intimate thoughts, would desert him at such a critical time, especially after years of being his most trusted confidant. He suddenly wasn’t sure he could forgive Pez the insult, either. He had asked nothing of these three people but their loyalty and now each had
betrayed him. Perhaps the only person he could trust was the one who professed the greatest love; for all her deceits and cunning manipulations of those around her, Herezah was the only one who had been true to him..

‘We need go no further,’ Tariq said, breaking gently into his bitter thoughts. ‘What has occurred?’

Boaz knew the Grand Vizier could not see the glare of his expression but his hesitation was telling and the fury eman ating from him was probably all too obvious.

‘Ah, my Zar, you have tested the Spur, haven’t you? What did you discover?’

‘Lazar answered my questions plainly and I suspect truthfully. His loyalty is to Percheron.’

‘I see. So why are we skulking about in the darkness, avoiding the Spur’s hearing?’

‘Because I want to know what you meant earlier,’ Boaz demanded. ‘Don’t play games with me, don’t speak to me in a cryptic manner. If you’ve got something to say, say it plainly, or, so help me, Tariq—or whatever your name is—I’ll have Lazar run you through with a sword and I’ll leave your body for the vultures we saw circling earlier.’

‘There is no need to threaten me,’ the Grand Vizier replied mildly but in that eerily deep voice he had adopted earlier.

‘Why do you speak like this all of a sudden? What has happened to your voice?’

‘I am being honest with you. I am revealing the true self that you demand to know. Now tell me, what have you discovered?’

Boaz paused. Nothing about this felt right but then nothing about his life felt right all of a sudden. He had been treated with the ultimate disrespect by his wife and his most trusted friend. No matter what anyone else said, Boaz knew the deception was a fact. He would do the only thing that he could do as Zar, take the only course his father would have demanded. He would kill Ana, cut her throat himself. He would watch the light die in those beautiful sea-green eyes, but he knew that, with her death and that of the baby she carried, his heart would die. Although he would sire more heirs, beginning immediately, he would never love again, would never open his newly hardened heart and he would never trust a woman again.