"No. It was his minister, Ganulle. I heard him speaking to someone. They will kill you during tomorrow's celebration."
"They will try," Remo said. 144
"Yes," the woman said, not understanding Remo's meaning.
"Why did you come to tell me?"
"Because you looked kind. And because I do not like Ganulle. His plans toward our sheik are evil."
Involuntarily, she moved her neck toward Remo's hand, and he began stroking the side of her throat down the hollow of her shoulder bones.
"Thank you for warning me," Remo said. "What can I do for you in return?"
"You need do nothing, except live. I would want nothing to befall you or the old one."
"What's your stake in this? Just who are you? Are you the sheik's daughter?"
"Oh, no. I am the wife of his son."
"Abdul?"
"Yes."
"What is he all about?" Remo asked. He felt a little hitch in the woman's breathing, and with his thumb he touched her cheek and felt a tear roll down the side of her face.
"He is a fat and worthless cruel man whom I will never love," she said in a rush of whispered words.
"Can't you get away?"
"You do not understand our traditions. It is my destiny to be the prince's woman. One of them."
"I don't understand anybody's traditions, I guess," Remo said. He felt the girl shudder, and he said, "But in my land, we have a tradition of our own."
"And what is that?"
"We show those who care for us how much we care for them," Remo said, and then he was pulling her onto the sleeping mat with him. He was surprised at how light she was. He removed the veil from her face and saw that the rest of her was as beautiful as her eyes had been.
He pressed his lips to hers, and she came to him with her lips and her body, wanting him, needing him, and he brought her to him and gently, delicately made love to her entire body.
145
They joined in joy, and when they were done, before Remo could stop her, the girl cried out from sheer happiness.
Remo heard a rustling at the tent flap and pushed the young woman off to the side of the mat and covered her with the light blanket. The bigger of the two guards stuck his head into the tent and came to the side of Remo's sleeping cushions.
"Oh, it's you," Remo said.
"I heard a noise."
"I had a bad dream. I cried out," Remo said.
"You cry out like a woman," the guard said.
"I didn't know that," Remo said.
"Perhaps tomorrow you will cry out like a man," the guard said.
"Gee, wouldn't that be nice," Remo said.
After the guard left, Remo removed the cover from the young woman. She replaced her veil and rose quickly to her feet.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For making love to me. It has been so long."
She started away, but Remo caught her wrist. "What is your name?" he asked.
"Zantos," she said. "Be careful tomorrow."
"I will."
"I will pray for you," she said and was gone.
146
Chapter Nine
The two horsemen faced each other across a distance of 100 yards. Directly between them, a five-foot-high wooden post, four inches thick, was anchored into the sand, supported by smaller posts propped at angles against it.
Sheik Fareem sat next to Remo on the small raised platform. He slowly lifted his hand and then dropped it, and as he dióV the two horsemen prodded their big, muscular stallions with their heels, and the two horses bolted forward, racing toward the center post. As they rode, the two Arab soldiers withdrew long, curved swords from scabbards at their sides.
The horseman coming from the left reached the post first. He waved his sword over his head in a large, sweeping arc, then swung it in laterally, parallel to the ground. Flashing in the sun, the blade bit cleanly through the four-by-four post, with the thunk of a melon hitting the ground. But even before his sword exited the wood, the second soldier was there. He raised his sword high over his head as he was riding, and then, without his horse even slowing down, he brought the sword down vertically on the wooden post. He slashed it through, almost to the base, his blade missing only by millimeters the side-moving sword of the first horseman. The top of the four-by-four, severed two feet above the sand by the first soldier and then split lengthwise by the second, dropped to the sand in two neat pieces.
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The gathered crowd followed Sheik Fareem in applause.
Remo clapped too, as did Chiun next to him.
Fareem leaned toward Remo and said, "The finest light cavalry in the world. And now, only one hundred of them are left."
Remo saw Zantos, the green-eyed girl, on the other side of the platform and nodded to her, but the girl looked away. He felt Chiun tapping his shoulder.
"Pretend that this is good, Remo," Chiun whispered. "That those two horseback-riding monkeys impress you. It is good manners."