Desert Jewels & Rising Stars

by Sharon Kendrick

  He placed her gently on a large, flat rock. “I’ll bring you some food and water.”

  She was looking around with a disappointed frown. “This is Aziz’s cave?”

  “The antechamber, so to speak.” He brought a bottle of water from the cooler his cook had packed, and handed it to her.

  She drank deeply, then looked around again. “Where is your security? I thought you would bring at least two guys. Two could have fit in the truck’s cab.”

  “One man came in the delivery truck, so the least suspicious thing to do was to have one man leave in it. If I jammed the cab with security personnel, whoever is watching the palace would have known something was not right. And I wanted to leave as many men behind to protect you as I possibly could,” he said with some exasperation.

  His response seemed to give her pause, but she recovered pretty quickly. “Are you sure your enemies won’t figure out that you left the palace if they don’t see you move around for a while?”

  “I put the word out that I’m recovering from a gunshot wound.”

  She fidgeted. Bit her lip. Shuffled her feet on the ground. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

  “You can go behind the rock that tops off the cave.” He had driven around it to make sure the area was empty on all sides. They were alone. “Don’t spend too much time out in the sun,” he added, then turned from her and walked outside to unload the truck.

  She seemed to be all right. They were already here. A preliminary search through the lower chamber of the cave shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. At least he would know what he faced when he came back later. He might need more tools. It only made sense that he looked around while she rested. Time was not to be wasted. The sooner he got to the end of the mystery of the idols, the sooner she would truly be safe.

  He brought in the crate she’d been hiding in, moving awkwardly due it its sheer size, appreciating that the temperature was twenty degrees cooler inside the cave. He glanced around the cavern, which had been expanded to accommodate visitors. He’d never found this part of the cave particularly impressive. He was on the third crate when she joined him, carrying a canvas bag.

  “I don’t want you to lift anything heavy.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It’s bread and dried food.”

  He took the bag from her nevertheless.

  She walked away from him, looking at the sheer stone walls, the path to the corner and the hole that led to an underground chamber of the cave, a sole rope dangling there for support.

  “I’m guessing that’s where we are going.”

  Did the thought scare her? Good. “You should have seen the place before it was remodeled. King Saeed, who discovered the cave, said the way down was a rabbit hole carved in the rock. You squeezed through dark passages that led to small enclosures barely large enough to sit up in. There you had to find the opening of the next tunnel, excavate it and move forward.”

  She looked suitably impressed.

  “Anyway, I’m going down there. You’re staying up here.” He headed out for the last crate that held equipment he figured he would need even for a quick look around.

  “And if somebody comes?” She stared down the hole, into the darkness, her shoulders tense.

  He slowed and considered. Somebody could stop by. Even if they weren’t the people who wanted them dead, there could come a party of young men, the kind who sometimes drove deep into the desert for drunken parties their fathers wouldn’t allow at home since alcohol was illegal in Beharrain, as in most Muslim countries. She would be up here alone—

  He had made plans for her. Left her under guard. Safe. Of all the insane things she could have done—Frustration made him stop what he was doing and turn around. “Why are you here?”

  “You have my passport,” she said evenly, as if she were being completely reasonable.

  Stubborn. She was exceedingly stubborn, that was what she was. He had made a mistake by not taking that into consideration, by assuming that she would heed his words at least to a degree, because she was a woman and his sole intention was to protect her, and not the least because he was a sheik and everybody else heeded his words. Damn.

  “I’m a little scared staying up here alone.” She looked away.

  And he could tell that it cost her to admit that.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll stay right here until you rest, then I’ll take you back home. I can come back here later.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  He nodded. By the time he got back to his palace, the day would be pretty much over.

  “It would cost you the whole day,” she said, sounding dismayed.

  He shrugged. It couldn’t be helped.

  She looked down into the darkness again. “I could go down there with you. I’m not completely helpless, you know.”

  Far from it. She’d outsmarted him and had gotten out of his closely guarded palace without anyone catching her. “I don’t think it’s advisable in your condition.”

  “I don’t have a condition.” She scowled. “I’m not sick. I’m pregnant.” She had stubborn written all over her face.

  “Can you climb rope?” He indicated the hole against his better judgment. In truth, if she got tired, he could carry her down on his back. She weighed nothing.

  “Can you act insufferably imperious?” She drew herself straight in response to his challenge.

  She was funny.

  He was not.

  He’d had few light moments in his life, was aware that he’d grown up to be a harsh man, hadn’t questioned it much. Until now.

  Aziz had liked to joke. Strange how the same childhood experiences could form two very different men. Aziz sought to make up for his bleak past with jamming as much adventure and excitement as possible into his life. Karim couldn’t forget. He coped with the past by being involved in the law-making process in what little time his corporate job at MMPOIL left him. As sheik, he had input into the judicial reforms, and he took advantage of that to make sure that what his stepbrother had done to his family and his country, could never happen again. His only entertainment was the occasional trip to the camel races.

  He wondered what Julia would think of that. She’d find his life unbearably boring, no doubt. She was stubborn and feisty, but by Allah, with all that wild hair and that determination in her eyes, she was a sight to behold. He couldn’t help the smile that tugged up the corner of his lips. And she smiled back in response and visibly relaxed, and something passed between them, a moment, a sort of understanding.

  He realized that until now he’d been too angry at her for stowing away to see that she’d been scared. Of the desert? Of him? She’d be smart to be cautious on both counts. But she had no cause to be scared of him. Allah only knew what nonsense her head had been filled with, growing up in the West.

  “All I wish for is your safety.” Maybe if he said it enough times, it would reach her at some point.

  She gave no indication that she believed him, but at least she didn’t fight his declaration, either. “Let’s go,” she said.

  “I’ll go first.” He lifted a sack that had been filled to the brim with essentials and clipped it to his belt. “It’s about fifty feet down. If you need to stop and rest at any time, let me know.”

  He found the hole in the rock for the safety line and put in a pin and attached a second rope. Then he sat on the edge of the hole and grabbed the original rope that was fastened to a steel stud someone else had driven into the rock. He shifted his weight onto the rope carefully. It was a sturdy piece and held. When he was a couple of feet down, he turned his flashlight on and let it hang down his belt, pointing to the cave floor below, then called up to her to follow.

  He watched as she came over, moving gracefully, and caught up with him in no time.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Perfectly fine,” she said.

  When they got halfway down and she hadn’t called for rest yet, he stopped on his own. “You can put your feet on my shoulde
rs and take your weight off your arms.”

  “I don’t have to. I’m okay.”

  “Humor me.”

  “You already have that bag hanging on you.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “So why can’t you believe that I can handle it?”

  Stubborn. He could be that, too. “The sooner you take a break, the sooner we can move on.”

  She murmured something he couldn’t catch, but she did move down, and her slim feet came to rest on his shoulders for a few seconds.

  “Okay. I’m good now,” she said too soon.

  He made her rest another minute before he continued downward.

  The underground cavern they landed in was ten times larger than the one above. The sounds of running water came from the back, and a small pool came to view as they moved forward on the uneven floor. This was the attraction that drew visitors.

  “Wow.” She was staring wide-eyed at the area his flashlight illuminated.

  He’d had the same reaction the one time he had come down here. It seemed amazing that all this should be hidden under the arid desert above.

  “According to Queen Dara, Aziz spent a whole week here not long before his death.” He panned the area with his flashlight.

  “What did he do?”

  Exactly. What did Aziz do in a bare cave for a week? Aziz had never been the introspective, meditative type. He lived for excitement. What excitement could he have possibly found here that held his attention for a full seven days?

  Karim had a fair idea. “I think he might have found another passage. When Saeed came across our grandfather’s hidden treasure down here, it was such a surprise that nobody looked much beyond it. What they carted off to the National Museum was staggering. It wouldn’t have occurred to anyone to look for more.”

  “Why would it occur to Aziz then?” She cocked her head.

  Good question. “He was always studying ancient scrolls. Could be he found some information in those.” No way to tell. He’d spent a couple of hours looking for some of his scrolls while he and Julia had stayed at Aziz’s palace, but had found nothing. Whoever had ransacked the palace had taken those, along with who knew what else.

  “So we look for another passage.” Julia was already walking toward the rock wall.

  “You can check around the perimeter and see if you find something. If you do, do not go anywhere. Watch out for large crevices in the cave floor so you don’t fall in. Here.” He tossed her the flashlight and she caught it.

  “And you?”

  “I’ll get the rest of our equipment down here.”

  KARIM’S INITIAL estimate of one to two hours for a quick scan turned out to be optimistic. The cavern was larger than he had remembered. They searched late into the evening, with him persevering in getting Julia to take regular breaks, since she refused to leave until they examined every inch of the cave wall. He’d even set up ropes to check higher up all around. They’d found nothing.

  “This is it.” He rappelled back down to her. “I don’t know where else it could be.”

  She was standing at the water’s edge. “Mind if I take a dip before we go back? The ride will take hours yet. I can’t believe how hot and sweaty I am.”

  The images that flickered through his mind froze his hands to the harness for a second.

  “Trust me, you would not want to sit close to me for the next couple of hours.”

  Just because she was an intelligent woman, didn’t mean she couldn’t be at times utterly wrong. He would have liked to be as close to her as possible. Closer.

  “Go ahead.” He carried the harness to the area of the cave where a wall of boulders blocked the pool from view, and considered the trip back to occupy his mind. A couple of hours in the car. And she looked exhausted already. He’d been telling her to rest, but here he was, planning to drag her all over creation for hours yet.

  He made up his mind and went to the crate he had lowered earlier because it contained most of his pulleys. As luck would have it, he had wrapped his equipment in his sleeping bag along with a couple of blankets. He had planned to spend a night or two here before he’d known that she would be joining him. They could stay a single night, he supposed, and start on their return journey in the morning, refreshed.

  He was blocking thoughts of Julia naked in the water so vehemently, that he hadn’t heard her come up behind him and was startled when she asked, “Do you have a towel I could use?”

  She hadn’t even undressed yet.

  He could get her there. In seconds. About three would be enough. Instead, he drew a slow breath, removed a towel from the crate and handed it to her. “Here.”

  “Thanks.”

  He shouldn’t have turned to watch her walk away, but he found himself leaning against the crate. She took his flashlight with her, the swinging light outlining her silhouette. She wore her slacks and tunic, her shapeless abaya discarded at the top of the cave. She wouldn’t have been able to climb the rope in that.

  He couldn’t look away until she disappeared behind the boulders. Then he pulled over one of the dozen cave lights he had strategically placed on the floor, and began to set up the few supplies he had. Since he’d planned on spending only a couple of nights—alone—he had brought little.

  He was done and sitting on their bedding by the time he heard water splashing at the back of the cave. He clenched his jaw, his hands going still on the food bag. He drew a deep breath, looked up in the direction of the ceiling he couldn’t see. The lights he had weren’t powerful enough to light the whole cavern all at once. They’d been working in sections. “Take your time. We’ll stay the night. You need your rest. It’s too hot out there for another long ride,” he called out to her.

  She didn’t respond. Probably didn’t like being told what to do, yet again. He couldn’t afford to worry about that. His first priority was to protect her and her child.

  He closed his eyes and tried to picture Aziz in this cave, what he had found and how he had found it. Images of Julia Gardner naked in the water kept breaking in. She was beautiful, strong, honorable, smart. He wanted her, there was no denying that. He wanted her and was jealous of Aziz that he had found her, that she had fallen in love with him, that she was carrying his child.

  “Karim?” Her voice reached him from a distance.

  He opened his eyes, and for an insane moment held his breath that she might ask him to join her in the pool. The hope of it alone was enough to make his body harden. “Yes?”

  “I think I found something.”

  She was out of the water by the time he reached her, and partially dressed. Her tunic came to midthigh. She hadn’t put on her slacks yet. He tried not to stare at her shapely limbs and failed.

  “What is it?” He dragged his gaze upward at last.

  “Look.” She squatted and pointed at the rock with her flashlight where a hole had been drilled about the width of a finger.

  He squatted next to her to examine it, looked around and soon found another.

  “Do you think it’s marking something? What do you think it means?” she asked.

  He knew exactly what it meant. His mind was moving a mile a minute. “There was a hook for a rope here, and a backup rope.” He peered into the water then stood to shed his shirt, shoes and socks, leaving only his pants. He slipped in.

  “There’s an undertow there,” she warned when he had resurfaced. “That’s why I grabbed on to the edge and my finger slid into the hole.”

  He stood right in the undertow and felt the wall of the pool with his hand. Solid rock. Then he extended his right foot forward and felt a crevice. He dipped under, and found a tunnel that started on the pool’s floor and was about three feet wide and tall. He couldn’t get to the end of it, the flow of water working against him, carrying him out. He gave up after another moment and broke the surface for air.

  “I think I found an underwater passage. That’s how this pool is fed. The water is coming from there.”

  “Did y
ou bring scuba equipment?” She glanced up.

  He still had crates on the truck he hadn’t removed.

  “Everything but.”

  “You can come back another time.”

  He wasn’t going to turn around without giving this a serious try. He pulled himself out of the pool and brought over two ropes plus a helmet with a waterproof light attached to it. He fastened that on first, then set the ropes up and secured himself before slipping back into the water. “Hang on to this.” He handed her the end of one of the ropes. “One tug, I’m okay. Two tugs, pull me back.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “This could lead someplace.”

  “Maybe Aziz had proper gear.”

  “But the people who hid those statues hundreds of years ago didn’t. If they could get through so can I.”

  “Hundreds of years ago, the cave could have been dry. Don’t things in the earth shift over time?”

  She was right. But still, he had to try. “I’ll come back.” And with that, he took a deep breath and went under.

  He could see much better with the light on. The tunnel was slightly smaller than he’d previously judged, but as far as he could tell, he wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck. He kicked away with all his strength, swam against the current, pushing against the tunnel wall with his feet.

  He pushed again, got jerked back and realized his rope had gotten caught on something. He had to turn around to free it, losing a few feet as the current pushed him back. Using all his strength, he kicked away.

  Nothing but water and rock for as far as he could see.

  Had Aziz been here? Were those screw marks by the pool his? Other possible explanations came to mind now. Maybe after they’d emptied the cave of treasures, the archaeologists had dredged the pool. He hadn’t followed the proceedings closely, knew most of what he did from the media.

  He wondered if he’d been in a full minute yet. Time had stopped as soon as he’d entered the tunnel. It seemed he’d been here long, too long already. But that couldn’t be. It didn’t seem he’d gotten all that far. He pushed forward again.