“No.”
“One should always pay attention to beauty. There’s no way of predicting when it will leave us.” He gently nudged her toward a columned doorway to her left. “You might consider that.”
She strode ahead of him out onto the terrace.
Layla and Tarik were standing at the balustrade and turned as Selene approached.
“Ah, you look more rested. I hope you were made comfortable.” Tarik glanced at Kadar and smiled slyly. “I hate to think of my fate if you were displeased. It seems Kadar is a trifle upset with us.”
“Oh, I’ve recovered my temper. You needn’t worry.” Kadar dropped into a chair at the wooden table beneath the vine-covered arbor. “As long as you heed the thrust of our discussion.” He looked at Selene. “Here we are. Gathered at your command, meekly awaiting your words. What do you wish of us?”
Ignore the mockery. Say what had to be said. “I want Nasim dead.”
Kadar’s expression didn’t change. “I thought that might be it.”
“I’m going to need help. I’d do it myself, but he has too much power, too many men.”
“I’d judge your assessment is correct. I can think of no one who would go up against him without help. Some would say it’s impossible. He’s seldom alone. He can call on the assassins at any time.”
“Are you saying you won’t help me?”
“No, I’m saying it would be difficult and possibly lethal.” His tone was detached. “And you have no training that would make such a foray successful.”
“But you have. You could show me.”
“Do you wish to invest as many years as I have on learning the dark path?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so. It wouldn’t suit your temperament, Selene.”
“It would suit me to see him dead. I’ll do whatever I have to do toward that end.”
“You believe you will, but thought and execution are not the same. It takes a certain savagery that you don’t possess.”
“Then I’ll acquire it. I’ve had many lessons lately. All I’ll have to do is remember Haroun.” Her voice was suddenly fierce. “Did Layla tell you how Nasim hacked him to pieces? He tried to save us, and that monster-”
“She told me,” he interrupted. “But emotion ebbs and flows, and it tends to get in the way of reaching goals. That memory will hinder, not help you.”
He was so cool and objective, not like the Kadar she knew at all. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it wasn’t this remoteness. Kadar had never distanced himself from her. “I cannot help it. The emotion is there. It will always be there.” She added deliberately, “I suppose I cannot expect you to feel anything for the child that died because of Nasim. He wasn’t real to you.”
Some emotion flickered in his expression, but it was gone in an instant. He lifted his brows. “Was that jab supposed to bring blood? You’d best aim your arrows at the real enemy. One of the first things I learned was that one must concentrate on the important things and ignore the rest.”
“The important thing is that Nasim killed, and I won’t have him go unpunished. It’s not fair. What happened was all wrong. He shouldn’t be permitted to destroy and ride away. I won’t let him do-” She broke off and tried to temper the passion in her voice. “I won’t run and hide from him any longer. It has to end.”
“Be patient. Time has a way of vanquishing the most vicious foes,” Tarik said gently. “The risk is too great, Selene.”
She whirled on him. “Don’t tell me about patience. You’re almost as bad as Nasim. Since the very beginning you’ve all played your games and moved Kadar and me about as if we had no importance.”
Tarik sighed. “It’s precisely because you do have importance that you were drawn into our machinations. I was so weary. I thought I had the right to-I never wanted either of you to be hurt.”
“Well, we
“Stop attacking him,” Layla said. “You don’t understand. He blundered, but he meant you no real harm. It was Nasim who did this.”
“It’s true. I don’t understand. You’ve both made sure that we didn’t understand.” She met Tarik’s gaze. “But that’s going to change. I’m not going to wander blindly in the dark any longer. Nasim wants the grail. It’s a weapon I can use to trap him. I need to know why he wants it. I want to know everything about it.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.”
“Don’t you say that. I deserve to know.”
“Tell her,” Layla said suddenly.
“Be silent, Layla.”
“I won’t be silent. She’s right and you’re wrong.”
“You’ve always thought me wrong when I’m merely being responsible.”
“You’re not God; you can only do your best. Should that stop you from taking any action at all? And what of Kadar? Would you leave him with no knowledge of what has happened?”
“I was going to tell him. I was going slowly.”
“Why? He doesn’t impress me as being oversensitive. Not one man in a hundred would respond as Chion did.”
“I resent that judgment. I have a very sensitive soul.” Kadar paused. “But I admit my curiosity is greater than my delicacy of feeling. It would please me if you’d stop this bickering and give Selene the information she desires.”
“Tell her, Tarik,” Layla repeated. “Or I will.”
Tarik was silent for a long moment. “It’s a mistake.”
“Then make a mistake. It will be good for you.”
He shrugged. “It’s on your shoulders.”
Layla smiled. “I can bear it.”
Tarik turned to Selene. “Ask your questions.”
“Why does Nasim want the grail?”
“He thinks it will bring him power.”
“But he’s mistaken.”
“No, it could bring him power but not the way he thinks.”
“What do you mean?”
“The grail has an inscription,” Kadar said. “What is it? The location of a great treasure?”
“Yes.” Tarik’s lips twisted. “Or of hell.”
“It has nothing to do with hell,” Layla said fiercely. “It’s a great gift.”
Tarik shook his head.
“It is,” Layla insisted. “If you would only let yourself see that there are possibilities that-” She drew a deep breath. “It’s not a map, it’s directions for-No, I’m doing this wrong. You must start at the beginning, Tarik.”
“You give me little opportunity.” He shrugged. “The beginning for me was when you came to the Great Library.” He looked at Kadar. “I told you of the library and what it meant to me. When Layla came and told me that she wished me to search the scrolls to find a document dictated by Selket, I regarded it merely as a challenge. She didn’t tell me what the scroll contained.”
“Scroll? What of the grail?”
“The grail came later. It took me many weeks to locate the scroll. I had to search in my free time. When darkness fell, I would let Layla into the library and we would comb through the Greek scrolls. At first I wasn’t sure it was the correct one, but at the beginning we saw a word that couldn’t be mistaken. It was then that Layla told me what the scroll contained. I didn’t believe it. I laughed at her. She took the scroll and tried to gather all the herbs listed on it. It wasn’t easy. Some of them we had never heard of, and the primary ingredient was a rare herb grown on the banks of the Nile. Finally we thought we had all we needed and rented a small hut near the marketplace and began to put the mixture together. For me, it was merely an adventure. An exercise in learning.” He paused. “But Layla believed. She became obsessed with it. She ran great risks each time she came to the hut. The priests were becoming suspicious, and I tried to persuade her to come away with me to the country, where we might be safe. She wouldn’t do it. She had to finish the work.”
Layla shrugged. “And when we finished, we didn’t know what to do with it. How could we test it? How would we know whether Eshe was truth or myth?”
