Siren of the Desert

*~Chapter seventeen - Usurper~*

*~Chapter seventeen - Usurper~*

Maria was finding it very difficult staying on Sa'iqa's back as the mare soared through the souk, as swift as a nightly gale, yet still, she held on to the horse's neck for dear life. Her father clung to her, his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Where are we going? What is going on?" he yelled in a panicked voice.

"Just hold on, father! Hold on!"

Their surroundings became a passing blur. Air whooshed past her ears and hair. People threw themselves out of Sa'iqa's way, for the mare did not slow down for anyone. Peddlers abandoned their wares and cursed as they jumped into stalls to avoid being crushed, cursing profusely at them. Clay pots and pitchers that a peddler had been displaying atop a mat were smashed to bits beneath Sa'iqa's horseshoed hooves. They both ducked down to avoid a low-hanging rope that would have hung them by the neck. Maria was beginning to regret charging into the souk.

Maria looked over her shoulder and past her father to see that they were not being followed. They were getting away!

A long whistle, low and ear-piercing drifted to her ears. Sa'iqa abruptly turned around, nearly throwing them off her in the process. She raced back from whence they came, picking up speed.

"Stop, Sa'iqa! You're going in the wrong direction!" She tugged at the reins, but Sa'iqa kept on galloping, heedless of her protests. "Stop, I said! Stop, you stupid horse!" Maria and her father ducked down again from the hanging rope. The peddler who'd lost his pots and pitchers spotted them coming back. Red-faced and sputtering, he raised and waved a fist at them. He was saying something, but she was too terrified to hear, the blood roaring in her ears.

She straightened a little to see where the hell Sa'iqa was headed. A figure lay standing at the entrance of the souk, directly in their way.

"No, not that way! Go back, Sa'iqa, please!"

Sa'iqa slowed to a trot, then halted in front of the figure. Zain reached his hand to pet Sa'iqa on the head between the eyes, murmuring praises, then he fixed her with a look that made the blood in her veins freeze. She broke out in a cold sweat.

The flower appeared under her nose. She looked down at Zain, bewildered.

"You forgot this," he told her. Hesitantly, she accepted it yet again. He took Sa'iqa's reins from her. Maria finally took note of the group of guards standing behind him. They'd been lying in wait for her to betray her father as she had.

How diabolical, she thought despairingly, casting Zain a murderous look.

To her father, he said, "You'll be coming with us, Hakim."

"F-F-For how long, my sheikh?" her father stammered, a note

fear creeping into his voice.

"Indefinitely."

****

"No-name, will you sit down? Your pacing is driving us crazy." huffed Jasham from atop her bed. When Maria didn't even seem to hear her, let alone respond, she picked up a pillow and tossed it at her. It thumped against her as she paced and fell to the ground. She barely registered the impact.

All Maria could think about was her father. The events that had transpired this morn occupied her mind, still fresh. Zain had ordered her father imprisoned right in the middle of the souk for all to see. Now, she paced to and fro the entire length of the bedroom she would share with Jasham and the rest of the girls indefinitely, waiting, hoping, praying.

She had been beginning to believe that she had somehow misjudged him, that his infamous reputation was fabricated, that it was all a great misunderstanding. Oh, how pitifully wrong she'd been. When he didn't get what he wanted, he had revealed to her his true colours, and she'd seen the darkness.