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Eliana.
He blinked his eyes sharply, trying to tell himself this must be a mirage. A feverish desert dream. But, when he looked again, she was still racing toward him.
Eliana had come to him, here in the desert.
Now he could hear the pounding hooves of her horse as it raced across the final stretch of flat sand at the base of the dune upon which Kadeem was standing, rooted to the spot.
Finally something snapped within him, and he began to run down the side of the dune, toward Eliana.
He reached the base of the dune just as she reined in her mount, drawing it to a sliding halt.
"Eliana!" Kadeem cried gazing up at her.
She threw the horse's reins out of her hands and leaped down onto the flat sand. For a moment, they both stood gazing at each other. He still could hardly believe that she was here, standing in front of him.
Her features were flushed and she was out breath. "Kadeem. I came back," she exclaimed, her voice cracking with emotion.
He smiled at her, but there was nothing he could say. All he wanted to do was gaze at her, take in the sight of her, as she stood just a few feet away from him.
Then she smiled, cried out and ran to him. Kadeem stretched out his arms and she fell into his embrace. He wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her, sensing the wondrous feeling of her body against his.
"You're really here!" he exclaimed.
She laughed. "Of course I am," she said. "You didn't think I was going to let you run off like that, did you?"
Suddenly, he was seized by an uncontrollable impulse, vital and unstoppable. His head dipped and his lips crashed down upon hers. She gasped as he kissed her. The sensation was perfect, the relief that she was back in his arms real and true.
He savored the taste of her lips, the sensation of her flesh. It was something he'd believed he'd lost. But now she was here, in his arms. It seemed like a fantasy, one last torment to drive him over the brink.
He lifted his head and gazed into her moist, shimmering blue eyes. "How did you find me?" he asked.
She tilted her head. "Everyone I asked knew you could only be in one place. Here. They gave me directions."
Still, that wasn't enough. "But why have you come?" he asked breathlessly.
Eliana narrowed her eyes. "You really don't know?"
He realized what she was hinting at. "I know what we said to each other back in the palace," he admitted.
She tightened her arms around him. "And nothing has changed, Kadeem," she told him.
"But, your father..." he started to say.
She cut him off. "He made a mistake. And he accepts that, now."
Kadeem squinted at Eliana. "Mistake? But, the scroll was clear. He had every right to do what he did."
Eliana shook her head. "That wasn't the real reason he rejected the idea of our marriage."
For a moment he paused, enjoying how those words had sounded on her lips. Our marriage, she had said. Maybe it wasn't too late, after all.
"My father was trying to spare me the kind of hardship my mother had to endure when she came to Zahram as his wife," Eliana explained. "He didn't want me to suffer as a result of marrying an outsider."
"That wasn't what he told me," Kadeem objected.
Eliana frowned. "He was too proud to admit that," she said. "My mother got the truth out of him. Eventually."
Kadeem stared disbelievingly at Eliana. "So he accepts he made a mistake sending me away?"
