Prologue #2
“Thank you, my love, for allowing me to bid them farewell,” he said.
Then he cupped her face with one hand and gently kissed her mouth.
“You must hurry. I sent word to your father when the army from the north approached. He will not receive the missive for some time, but you must be on your way so his ships can meet yours. The captain of your ship knows the way, and by the time your ship reaches the Red Sea, your father should be on his way to meet you. You and the children will be safe in Cairo.”
Her tears started to come. “And you, my darling?” she whispered. “What about you?”
He forced a smile, kissing her again. “I must do what I was destined to do,” he said bravely. “What I was meant to do. I will burn Lankara to the ground, and when there is only smoke and ashes left, I will kill my brother.”
“What if he kills you first?”
Amare shrugged. “Then I will see you in paradise,” he said. “But know… know that you have made my life paradise on earth, Kiya. No man has ever loved a woman more than I have loved you.”
“And I love you with every breath I take,” she murmured. “That will never stop, not in this world or any other.”
“I know, mere jaan.”
“Promise me, Amare. If you can escape to Egypt, promise that you will come to us.”
“I promise. But if I do not… this farewell was well made. It has given me courage.”
She started to weep. Weeks of being strong had reached the breaking point.
But Amare shushed her softly, turning her around and hustling her toward the servants who were waiting for her.
Essien grabbed her hand, holding it tightly as they rushed along, while Addax and his dagger lingered behind with his father.
Amare took them to the secret palace exit, where tunnels would take them to the river beyond where ships awaited, and then the river would take them to the sea and westward.
At the exit, Amare came to a halt and kissed his wife one last time, kissed Essien, and took a moment with Addax as the boy faced him with more bravery than a five-year-old should have to summon.
For a moment, Amare let himself drink in the sight of Addax, imagining the man his son would grow up to be. Of all of his regrets, the fact that he would not live to see it was probably his biggest one. Before him, he saw greatness.
He hoped his son would be able to achieve something of it, wherever life took him.
“Be strong, my son,” he whispered, struggling not to weep. “In the face of whatever this life will bring you, be strong, be honest, and be loyal to those you love. Promise me.”
“I promise, Pita.”
Amare smiled weakly. “Good,” he said, turning him to his mother and the rest of the escort bound for the tunnels. The servants were already dressing Essien in a disguise as a servant’s child. “Hurry, now. I will see you soon.”
Addax started to turn, but paused. “When?”
“As soon as God allows.”
That was good enough for Addax. It was something of a definitive answer, which his father had failed to give him before now.
The last vision he had of his father was as the man stood in the great stone doorway, watching his family flee.
But there was nothing but courage on his face, hope that they would survive, and that gave Addax the strength he needed to do as his father had asked.
He took the dragon blade dagger with him, knowing it carried the power of his ancestors.
On that dark, terrible night, Addax, his mother, brother, and sister, along with several loyal servants, fled out to sea.
But all did not go well.
A storm on the second night at sea pushed their convoy of three ships off course and into a gulf, where they were forced to dock at the city of Abu Samra.
That was when the captain, who had been loyal to Amare for years and had established trade routes for him, decided to demand favors from Kiya.
He’d never had a queen before, he’d said, something that confused Addax and Essien, but Addax knew instinctively that it wasn’t good. When Kiya refused, he struck her.
Addax rammed the dragon-headed dagger into the man’s kidney. Protect your mother, his father had said. So, he did.
After that, it was chaos.
Kiya and her children fled with her servants onto the streets of Abu Samra, but they became separated in the chaos.
Dust and wind and terror swirled about them, and the group fractured further.
The two old women, Bobo and Rami, fell afoul of a man they’d run into, and he threw them both into the sea.
After hiding out for a day and a night, Addax and Essien searched for their mother and sister for days and days, until they found an old fisherman who said he saw a screaming woman and her infant daughter taken aboard another ship.
Distraught, the hungry and exhausted boys had no idea what to do when they came across one of the male servants who had accompanied them, only the man had been in a fight and left to die in an alley.
He told Addax and Essien that, indeed, their mother and sister had been captured by the crew of the murdered captain and taken back aboard the ship. Now, the ship was gone.
So were their last links to their family.
Two very small boys found themselves alone in a strange land, their mother and sister vanished.
There were no more servants out of the several who came with them, except for the dying old man.
Therefore, Addax and Essien took up vigil next to the old servant, through heat and cold, night and day, learning to beg for food and receiving a pittance from the mosque in town.
But it was enough to sustain them until the old servant finally passed away six days after they had found him.
After that, they were on their own.
But not for long.
Abu Samra was a crossroads for trade caravans throughout the region, and one day, when Addax and Essien went to the mosque to beg for more food, the holy man introduced them to a merchant who was bringing an enormous caravan from Abu Dhabi and heading for Damascus.
The merchant needed small boys to run errands or complete tasks, and the holy man made it seem as if it would be a great, fruitful adventure for Addax and Essien.
It was better than begging in the streets, he said, and God would smile upon those who helped themselves.
Addax did want to please God, after all.
So, they went.
Unfortunately, the merchant was not their savior.
He enslaved them both, starving them and beating them, forcing them to tend camels and horses and load and unload merchandise.
Addax was a little older and a little stronger than Essien, who was little more than a toddler.
But he was a three-year-old who was forced to grow up very quickly as the hardships of life settled around them.
It was either that or he would die, and Addax found himself being both father and mother to his younger brother.
He would give Essien half of his meager rations so the child wouldn’t go to bed hungry at night, crying for his mother and father.
But the caveat was that Addax went to bed hungry.
This went on for two very long years.
Two years of being beaten and abused, of hoping the next day would bring relief or even someone with some kindness for them.
At one point, the merchant, a man by the name of Abiram, was given a slave girl in Basrah in exchange for goods.
She was young, but pretty and strong, and Abiram used her for labor.
She worked alongside Addax and Essien, her nature kind and joyful in spite of her circumstances.
Finally, the two young boys had someone to show them a measure of kindness and compassion, things they craved at their young age.
Amala was her name.
But Amala’s presence wasn’t to last forever.
Abiram had reached the Levant with his caravan of goods, and he found ready customers in the men protecting Acre, and other cities, from the onslaught of Christian armies.
One night, Abiram sold Amala to a lord for his harem, and Addax would never forget her soft weeping as she was taken away.
Somehow, Addax knew that he and Essien would not survive much longer.
Abiram was growing crueler, and they were growing weaker.
Once they hit the outskirts of Jerusalem, a vast and populous city, Addax made the decision to run.
It was either run or die.
When Abiram brought the caravan to a halt and ordered the boys to go into town with a message for a friend of his, they willingly went into the citadel of Jerusalem and lost themselves on the dusty, ancient streets.
Instead of searching for Abiram’s friend on the Street of the Merchants, they escaped the city walls to the north, running through scrub and rocks, avoiding scorpions and snakes, rushing toward another village.
It took all night.
Once they arrived, there were very few people on the streets.
Everyone seemed to be inside, even on what should have been a busy morning.
Addax and Essien did what they’d learned to do best—hide in the shadows, trying to remain unseen, being as unobtrusive as possible.
They’d learned that from Abiram, but more so now that they had fled the man.
They didn’t want to be brought back to him.
But they were only small boys, after all, and by midmorning, they collapsed in a grove of olive trees from sheer exhaustion, and Essien fell asleep on his older brother.
But Addax couldn’t sleep.
He had to remain vigilant.