Eighteen

 

Philemon sat in the water for a long time, seething. How dare those barbarian boys lay hands on him – a prince? If it had been the girl, he might have forgiven her – she was pretty enough to suit his tastes, and for that one glorious moment, he'd been human again. Desire had flared in her eyes for that moment, too. He hadn't imagined it.

But those men had ruined everything when they seized him and he'd turned back into a frog. He'd watched them from the water, and he was certain neither was her husband. She moved too freely for a wed woman. The easy familiarity between all three of them was the sort he'd known among the city guards before his father had died and he'd claimed the crown. Like brothers. They could be her brothers, though she was tiny compared to them. The child of a second wife, perhaps.

When all three of them retired to the same tent, he was certain of it. Two older brothers, protecting their younger sister. An untamed girl who was more than old enough to wed, but had not yet been taught the proper decorum for a married woman. Her husband would see to that, he was sure of it. The men of the desert demanded much of their wives.

He'd had concubines like her. Girls their fathers could not find suitable marriages for, so they'd been given to him as part of the price for the hospitality of Tasnim. Girls who had taken to Tasnim like ducks did to water, for Tasnim was different to other desert cities.

A city he had to save at any cost, or he had no right to call himself its prince.

He could wait in the oasis for a proper caravan, but who knew how long that would take? These three were the first travellers he'd seen since he took up residence here, and he had delayed long enough already.

He'd struck a bargain with the girl, wild though she was, and something told him she would honour it. But just in case she changed her mind, he would find a place among their things to stow away. The half-filled water bucket outside her tent seemed the most sensible place, he decided, when the night air had cooled the sands enough for him to hop across the camp to investigate.

He settled in the bucket to doze until dawn.