Banished (Forbidden)

  Her words were sobering. I hoped when we began the journey to the southern lands Kadesh and I would have the chance to talk about his kingdom and his hopes and dreams.

  “Forewarned is forearmed,” I said lightly, but I was certain I would shatter to leave her here in Tadmur alone. The silence between us swelled with affection and sorrow. “I love you with all my heart,” I finally whispered.

  My grandmother kissed me again, and I slipped from her grasp and fled the tent, tears blinding me.

  11

  When I came out of the tent door, I almost knocked Asher over. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, turning away to hide my shaking shoulders.

  “Jayden, wait!”

  I turned back, conscious of my mother’s lovely gown and the fresh kohl with which Seraiah had dressed my eyes. My once dirty, bloodied hair, now washed and brushed, flowed down the length of my back. “You really shouldn’t use my given name.”

  His face flushed, eyes traveling up my new appearance. “I apologize. Perhaps, after nearly dying together, I feel as though we are tied together in blood and death.”

  My mouth went dry at his intimate words. Self-conscious about how he’d wrapped his body around mine, I brushed it off. “You must think I’m a silly girl chasing after Kadesh across the desert. I wouldn’t blame you for being angry at having to save me in this strange place. Nearly dying for your efforts. You’ve left your homeland to fight a war not of your making.”

  “You crossed the desert alone with only a single camel and food for a fortnight. You faced starvation and death. You fended off the Nephish scout’s attack. I would never consider you silly.”

  When he stepped closer, my stomach twisted. “My admiration is immense. You left your family to follow Kadesh and create a new home with a royal family you know nothing about. You’ll certainly be a stranger in a very strange land.”

  I gave a nervous laugh. “You make his homeland sound daunting.”

  “Doing what you’ve done takes courage and a tremendous amount of selfless love. Kadesh is blessed. Someday—” His voice cracked. “Someday, I hope to be just as loved.”

  I squirmed at the personal words.

  “You are so unlike the Sariba women of the frankincense lands,” Asher added.

  “I’m sure they’re more sophisticated than a poor camel herder’s daughter.”

  “No, you are so much more—”

  I cut him off. “Please don’t say anything you might regret.”

  He stepped back and swallowed hard. “Come,” he finally said, “we must be on our way.”

  It was a short ride to Tadmur, but the gatekeepers weren’t pleased to spot a band of Edomites riding toward them.

  When we reached the city pylons, Chemish and Kadesh dismounted to speak with the guards. It was decided Chemish, Kadesh, and I would go to the temple to find Leila, while two platoons of Edomites kept guard along the city plaza. The remainder of the army would stay at the city gates, awaiting any news of Horeb the scouts brought from the desert.

  Tadmur was peaceful, so different from Mari under siege a few months ago. Still, a current of foreboding skulked around the edges. As we walked through the marketplace, whispers came from citizens speculating that the sign of Edomite soldiers might be a precursor to King Hammurabi of Babylon preparing an invasion of the western lands.

  The Temple of Ashtoreth loomed on its hill above the city plaza, glittering under the sun with white pristine walls and blue paved tiles.

  Kadesh and I followed the series of staircases to the golden double doors on the east side of the public entrance. Gardeners, messengers, slaves, and officials hurried about their daily tasks.

  I reached out to cling to Kadesh’s hand as we neared the public doors, despite the open arena with all of its watching eyes. His fingers clasped mine reassuringly.

  Before he could speak, we were at the temple door to Armana’s private offices. Unease crept up my neck.

  Leila was within these gilded, luxurious walls.

  The doors opened at the hands of a butler. A moment later, a woman appeared wearing a flowing blue dress, her hair adorned with curls and gold dust.

  I clenched my fists within the folds of my cloak while Kadesh gave a bow of greeting. “We’re here to visit Leila, a novice of the High Priestess Armana.”

  The woman’s eyes settled on me with a hint of recognition, but she didn’t acknowledge it. “Please come to our waiting room. Visitors are not allowed to go farther without an explicit invitation.”

  Down a short hallway was a small room where luxurious chairs and couches sat tastefully arranged. A table held a profusion of gloriously scented yellow roses, pale pink orchids, and lavender irises. A wide window overlooked an inner courtyard where a fountain sprayed the air with a heady mist.

  Statuesque figures of the goddess had been placed about the courtyard. Beyond the elaborate columns I glimpsed the inner temple halls. The entire compound evoked lushness, but an underlying sexual tension filled this place, too.

  My palms sweated. Beads of perspiration broke out on my forehead. A tinge of desperation filled me.

  Chemish paced the floor, agitated. “I hate to leave my men outside the city. I fear an ambush.”

  He’d barely finished speaking when the door opened and the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen glided into the room. “I’m Armana, High Priestess to our Goddess Ashtoreth,” she said in a low voice. Her full lips were red with pomegranate stain. Lavish jewelry adorned her throat, ears, and wrists, her hair a flowing mane of ringlets and gold filigree ornaments. She swept the silk train of her rose-colored dress about her sensuous hips, and when she raised her eyes, expertly lined with black kohl, they fastened on Kadesh.

  “To what do I owe this fascinating visit from the Sariba Prince?”

  “We’re looking for Pharez, the father of Leila,” Kadesh told her. “From the tribe of Nephish. We understand he came here looking for his daughter a few days ago, and never returned home.”

  The High Priestess purred, “That’s because he’s a silly man.”

  “Don’t speak of my father that way!” I burst out.

  Armana’s head whipped around and she looked at me with narrowed eyes. “A man named Pharez arrived looking for his daughter. Instead of waiting for an appointment and going to the taverns like any other reasonable man, he demanded I produce her immediately. When we did not—because she was busy with her duties to the goddess—he went into a tirade, shouting, throwing vases, and breaking one of our precious statues of Ashtoreth herself.”

  “Then you’re holding him against his will?” Chemish asked point-blank.

  “Of course we’re not holding him! We aren’t a prison. The men who stay here arrive of their own free will and then remain for the beauty, music, and culture.”

  Chemish gave a derisive laugh. Armana looked down her nose at him and turned back to Kadesh. “Will you take refreshment with me, Prince of Sariba?”

  Kadesh frowned, clearly perplexed by the High Priestess’s insistence on using his title. Something else about her words bothered me, although I couldn’t seem to identify it. “What is the protocol for visitors who want to see their daughters?”

  Armana lifted one pretty, bare shoulder in a shrug. “An appointment, of course. But if someone shows up unannounced they are treated the same as any disruptive parent. We call the Tadmur royal guard. Pharez was seized for unruly behavior.”

  I moaned inwardly. “Where is he now?”

  “He was charged with destruction of temple property and trying to kidnap a priestess.” She gave a faint smile. “As far as I know, he’s still in the dungeons of Tadmur.”

  “You are the most evil woman I know,” I spat, lunging toward the High Priestess.

  “Guards!” Armana screeched.

  The mahogany doors flung open. Three temple guards marched inside with swords drawn.

  Armana’s eyes narrowed and one eyebrow arched like a cat’s. “Take them to the Tadmur prison to visit the prisoner
named Pharez of Nephish. But I warn you,” she added. “He has a high price on his head. If not paid by the next moon, he’ll be put to death.”

  The room swam before my eyes. When the temple guards led us away I stole a glance behind me. Armana’s expression was oddly triumphant, as if she had planned this.

  I should have bit my tongue and kept my head. All my outburst had done was to get us escorted out. And I hadn’t even had a chance to ask to see Leila.

  Outside the temple again, we were transferred to a pair of dungeon guards. Chemish was released and ordered to leave the city. He slipped away with one of his scouts, giving us a quick backward glance. I watched the two Edomites fall into step, their heads bent together. Anxiety tugged at my belly. This day was lasting much too long. We should already be on the road to the southern Red Sea highway.

  Kadesh gave me a smile I returned apprehensively. I had to remember he was alive. I was alive. My father and sister were still alive, despite the terrible circumstances.

  We made our way down to Tadmur’s dungeons, following the jail keepers into the bowels of Tadmur. A network of stone corridors and chambers underneath the city ran parallel to the city’s sewer system. The stench was overpowering and the filth appalling.

  These rock walls had absorbed years of sweat and rancid food, as though the smell had painted the stone.

  A dank hallway stretched before us, disappearing into darkness. No windows graced this dismal place. No light penetrated.

  If we ran into trouble, I hoped Chemish and the Edomites could find us.

  “The girl should stay behind,” the guard said, eyeing me. He carried a bowl of something brown and lumpy. A small lantern in his other fist gave the only light. “She won’t want to see this.”

  “I refuse to be left alone.” I bit my tongue and tasted blood. “I can only imagine the insanity my father is living under. I had no idea it would be so appalling.”

  “I agree,” Kadesh said, keeping me close in the claustrophobic darkness.

  A solitary candle flickered. The darkness and heat were stifling. I could only imagine prisoners died here during the hot summer months without fresh air or decent food. The filthy air and slimy walls reached out to caress my face. My stomach heaved. “I take no responsibility if she gets sick.”

  “Down there!” the guard shouted next, halting on the disgusting floor.

  All I could see was a black hole in the rock, like a well. Kadesh took a candle and held it over the pitch blackness. “Dear God in heaven,” he whispered.

  Before he could stop me, I peered far down into the dank hole. Three men stood in a pit of water and sewage, tied with rope to walls blackened by years of vulgar filth.

  One of the figures was unmistakably my father. He wore only a loincloth, his gray hair matted and greasy, ribs showing under his skin, wrists shackled by bronze chain fastened to the wall over his head.

  I dropped to my knees. “Father, up here! It’s me, Jayden!”

  Kadesh’s arms went around my waist, holding me back from falling in.

  “Bring him up!” I cried. “Please! He’ll die down there.”

  The guard’s sinister smile flickered in the shadows. “They usually do.”

  I swayed on my knees, my hands reaching down into the hole, but falling far short.

  “Jayden, come away. You can’t see this,” Kadesh said.

  “Father,” I called out again. His head hung to one side; whether he was asleep or dead I couldn’t tell. I was glad my mother wasn’t here to see him like this.

  “The desert man called Pharez,” Kadesh demanded, pointing down the hole. “We’re here to get him released.”

  “He destroyed temple property and tried to kidnap one of the girls.”

  “The girl was his own daughter.”

  The man grinned in the candlelight. “Maybe she didn’t want to leave the temple.”

  Kadesh wouldn’t rise to the bait. “Has he been seen by a judge?”

  “No money for that.”

  “Is that the problem?” Kadesh asked. “He needs bribe money?”

  “Don’t insult me. Payment for damaged idols, drapes, chairs. That’s how it works.”

  Kadesh’s eyes fixed on the jailer’s face. “If payment is made he will be released.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “What’s in it for me?”

  Kadesh looked as though he might wring the man’s neck. “I assure you by the time we leave you will be more than happy.” He withdrew a silver coin and tossed it on the ground at the man’s feet.

  The jailer snatched it up. “Pay the rest on the way out. But be warned,” he added with a snarl. “I have my own men who will haul you back here and shove you in a hole if you cheat us.”

  “I promise you’ll never see us again.”

  An eternity passed while we waited for the guard to drag my father up on the rope. His legs and arms dangled as though he were already dead.

  My eyes watered when my father’s thin body slumped to the cold floor at my feet. Despair and illness were written into every crevice and wrinkle of his face. “Oh, Father, what have they done to you?”

  His limbs quivered when he tried to sit up. “Jayden?” His voice was so hoarse, I was sure he hadn’t spoken in days.

  I embraced his hands. “It’s me,” I whispered. Skin sagged along his stomach, and his beard had gone completely gray. I clung to him, weeping, so grateful to see him after all these months. Wrapping my arms around his emaciated body, my shoulders shook with sobs of sadness and guilt. It was obvious he hadn’t been eating properly for a long time. He didn’t look well at all.

  Trembling, my father’s fingers plucked at my hair. His eyes were rheumy and watering. Kadesh helped him sit, holding him up so he wouldn’t fall over. “I went looking for my daughters in Mari, following the camel markets.”

  Shame burned my cheeks. “I was in Mari,” I confessed. “Kadesh helped me find Sahmril. She’s been sold to a nobleman at the palace.”

  He nodded, and began to shake again. Kadesh took off his thick cloak to wrap around him.

  “Did you get to see her?” I asked.

  Weakly, my father thumped his chest in a gesture of mourning, his mouth going slack. “The palace had already burned. They died in the blaze during the chaos.”

  “No, Father. I saw her for myself. Sahmril was well with the adoptive family. She was just beginning to toddle on her little legs. She looked—” My voice broke as the memory of her sweet face sprang to my mind. “She’s beautiful. She looks just like Mother.”

  My father held his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with emotion.

  “They treated her well,” I assured him. “They call her Ramah.”

  His hands slipped from mine as he sank back to the floor. “I’ve lost my wife and all my daughters.” His tone was detached and odd, and it frightened me. “Leila to the temple. You to a foreign boy without marriage. Sahmril to a strange family.”

  “Kadesh, please let’s get him out of here.” I placed a hand against my father’s sallow cheek and bent low to his face. “Someday we will get Sahmril back.”

  He wept soundlessly, tears running like rain down his withered cheeks.

  “Sir,” Kadesh said with fresh urgency. “We must leave as soon as possible.”

  “Leave?” he echoed.

  “Pharez, I love and care for your daughter more than life itself. Please come with us to my kingdom. We’ll give you a new home, a new life. You’ll have the best doctors and regain your health. I will give you anything you ask if you’ll grant me the betrothal of your daughter.”

  “After Horeb’s brother, Zenos, died, I dreamed of Horeb and Jayden together on the Nephish throne.”

  “Ssh,” I whispered. “Don’t think of things so long ago.”

  “You can live on your own terms,” Kadesh told him. “You’ll be a free man.”

  I brushed my lips against my father’s fingers. “I love you, Father. You must come with us to the southern land
s so Kadesh and I can marry. We need a proper chaperone,” I added, attempting to smile.

  Without waiting for a response, Kadesh placed his hands underneath my father’s frail body, lifting him up into his arms. I tucked the cloak around him and then we made our way back through the clammy, rat-infested corridor. “Pharez, I’ll have my men retrieve your tent and camels.”

  My father nodded, but I wasn’t sure he understood we were leaving the oasis, never to return.

  “Get him out of here,” the guard said, waving his lantern in our faces.

  “I’m returning to the temple for Leila,” I said in a low voice to Kadesh. “I know the priestesses. If I go myself they can’t accuse you of being there to kidnap her—and drag you off to this horrible prison.”

  “I understand, but it’s too risky to go alone. I don’t trust Armana.”

  “I don’t either. Maybe Asher—or the Edomite army—could accompany me for protection, although they’ll have to wait outside. I can show them the rear entrances where I’ll bring Leila out.”

  “I don’t like being separated, but time is running out. Help Leila pack as quickly as possible. We’ll meet at the crossroads between the southern gates of Tadmur and the oasis. Be there no later than sundown.”

  “Agreed,” I said, trying to hide my anxiety with a small smile.

  A small leather sack bulging with silver and frankincense was laid on the jailer’s table as we exited the dungeons of Tadmur and burst out into fresh air again.

  Kadesh pressed a second pouch of valuables into my hand. “You know what to use it for,” he said.

  I nodded, and once again, I was racing toward the Temple of Ashtoreth.

  12

  Asher met me at the temple, leading a group of Edomites. My heart thrummed and my legs wobbled with fatigue. His band of brothers surrounded the plaza as I slid off the back of Asher’s horse. One of them was the rogue thief, Laban, and I jerked my head away when he leered at me.

  Asher put out a hand and then quickly dropped it. “I mean no disrespect, my lady. Are you sure you’re up to this after the horror on the stoning field?”