Twenty-Seven

 

Amani stepped out of the portal and sank up to his knees in sand. In his absence, the desert and the thick stone walls had kept his home secure, but he hadn't counted on the desert itself invading his castle. Perhaps because this was a war his servants had fought while he lived here, but now they were gone.

It mattered not. When he returned here with Briska to make the desert castle her home, she would help him choose suitable servants. In the meantime...Amani closed his eyes, summoning a magical sandstorm to blast his palace clean.

He surveyed the tiles, laid at the command of one of his royal ancestors. The same one who had ordered the mosaics and frescoes on every wall and domed ceiling, from which he'd taken his inspiration for Maram's palace. Modern art, created for one of these new religions that had invaded the region, could not compare to this. Four hundred years it had stood, and it would outlast these religious fanatics, he was certain of it.

And these ancestral walls would witness his triumph as he found the woman he loved, and brought her home.

Amani ensconced himself on the floor of the entrance hall, beneath the frescoes of his ancestors hunting, and closed his eyes to begin his own quest.

He bit his lip, tasting blood, then cast a searching spell, letting it spiral out over the desert, looking for his lost love.

He concentrated on Briska's beloved face, breathing deep and steady to keep his focus. The spell must find her. Over sand and water, mountains and plains, forests and fields, army camps and cities, his spell flew, searching for what he did not find.

But Amani would not give up. She lived – Maram would not lie to him about something so important. Unless the Sultan had lied to her, too...

Fury built as Amani's spell swept around the globe, finding nothing but emptiness.

Amani opened his eyes. Nothing could hide her from one of his search spells. Nothing. For who was more powerful than him? Only death could outmatch him. If death had taken Briska...

Then the world was no longer a place he wished to live in, either. But first he would exact his revenge on the man who had driven his beloved to her death.

Amani leapt to his feet, slashed open a portal, and strode through.