Darkness Chosen: Into The Shadow Part 7

Instead it shouted rest and relaxation. "What kind of mattress is that?" she asked.

"A Sealy."

She groaned with pleasure quite unlike the pleasure shead experienced in his arms. "My G.o.d, how did you get it up here?"

"What do you care?" He took the collar of her coat and tried to lift it away.

She wrapped her arms more tightly around herself and glared.

He tugged. "Take off your coat before you lie down."

"No."

In an elaborate gesture he removed his hands. "I was playing the gentleman."

"That s.h.i.+p has sailed."

For a moment she thought he was going to laugh. "You remind me of . . ."

"Of what?"

"Home." He gave her a push on the shoulder. "Go to sleep. I have to find out whatas happened with that s.h.i.+pment thatas coming through today."

She stumbled to the bed, flopped sideways across the mattress, and promptly slid into sleep. . . .

She stood on the edge of the cliff, the blue sky surrounding her. The wind blew hard, tumbling her hair around her face. She tried to back up, to get away, but her feet were too heavy. Then the ground shook. The stones rumbled. The edge gave way. She hurtled toward the ground. . . .

Her own scream brought her back to a wavering consciousness.

Heart pounding, she opened her eyesa"and stared into his. Into Warlordas.

He crouched on the bed, holding her. "Was it your nightmare? Did you fall?"

"Yes." She shuddered, and woke completely. "Yes."

His arms felt like safety, but that was a deception. For he watched her without expression, and now, without a doubt, he knew her weakness.

He would exploit her weakness.

"Do you want me to stay?" he asked.

"No." She pushed away, out of his embrace, and closed her eyes, rejecting him.

He could not seduce her with gentle words and comfort. She would not be his compliant bride.

She listened, heard nothing. Furious that he lingered so near, she snapped, "Get out, d.a.m.n it!"

No one answered.

She opened her eyes.

She was alone.

Chapter Nine.

Karen woke knowing exactly where she was. She knew why she was here. She remembered every last horrific moment of the day before, and most of all, she remembered Warlord.

She heard footsteps. He was in the tent. As he moved closer she carefully freed herself from the blankets and prepared to leap.

And she heard Mingmaas soft voice say, "Namaste , Miss Sonnet."

Karenas eyes sprang open. She came out of the bed in a rush. "Mingma? Youare here? He captured you, too?"

"Miss?" Mingmaas brow knit as she stared in puzzlement. "What do you mean, capture? He bring me for you."

Karen thought she must be more disoriented than shead realized, because that didnat make sense. "Whereas the warlord?"

"Warlord is gone."

"Gone from camp?" Karen grinned with savage pleasure. "What time is it?"

"The sun will rise soon."

"We can get away."

"No, miss."

"Donat worry. Iall make the plans." Karen pushed her hair out of her face. She was good at planning, good at taking advantage of opportunity, and she needed to escape now, first thing, while this warlord guy was out drinking with his buddies and celebrating his new concubine.

Mingma tsked and shook her head as Karen tugged at the pair of menas jeans that sagged around her hipsa"Warlordas jeans. "That is not attractive. Warlord requested I find you new clothes to wear." With a smile, she gestured at a blue-green georgette skirt and midriff-baring s.h.i.+rt intricately worked in gold-threaded hand embroidery. "He says bring only the finest and most beautiful, and I do."

"Thatas a pretty fancy sweat suit."

"Sweat suit?" Mingma c.o.c.ked her head at Karenas sarcasm. "I donat understand asweat suit,a but the color is like your eyes."

"Great. Just what I always wanted."

"Will you wash your hands and face before you eat?" Mingma gestured toward the hammered-copper pitcher and bowl.

"G.o.d, yes. Thank you." Karen splashed the cold water on her face, vanquished the last of the cobwebs, and felt a rise of confidence.

"Will you change before you eat?" Mingma stepped close and tried to tug at Karenas s.h.i.+rt.

"No! Iam not wearing that."

"You donat like it?" Mingma actually looked hurt.

"It would be hard to hike in. Are all the men gone?" Karen didnat wait for an answer, but opened the tent flap and looked.

The thin, gray premorning light spilled into the long valley, and from up here she could see it alla"the cliff on one side, the gorge on the other, and the narrow bottleneck of an entrance on the far end. On the flat valley floor a dozen men slept in bags and tents, and two sat hunched over, cleaning their rifles. One of them glanced up at her, then glanced up toward the other end of the valley. Following his gaze she saw a guard sitting high on a rock, rifle in hand. Looking more closely, she saw other guards stationed strategically at lookout points, dressed in camouflage and holding an impressive array of firearms.

"This isnat going to be easy." Karen stepped out and scanned the mountains around them. "We canat fight our way out, so weare going to have to be crafty. I wonder if these guys are open to bribes."

Mingma stepped out beside her. "You want to leave?"

"Of course I want to leave!"

"Why do you want to leave Warlord?"

Mingma didnat understand. Obviously. So, in a voice gravelly with fury, Karen said, "Because the b.a.s.t.a.r.d brought me here against my will, thatas why. To use me like . . . like a wh.o.r.e."

"Not like a wh.o.r.e. Like a wife. It is an honor."

"An honor? To be forced to have s.e.x with an ignorant, brutal raider?"

"But is he not your secret lover?"

"What?" Stiff with shock, Karen swung on Mingma.

"Is he not the lover who heard your tears, who slipped into your tent at night to make you forget your sorrow?"

"You knew?" Karen stood, her hands slack at her sides.

Mingma knew.

"It is not good for a young woman to sleep alone."

Karen covered her hot cheeks with her hands. "Did everyone know?"

"No, miss. The men you could hire were not good. Only the laziest would work in that evil place. Warlord keeps the best for himself." Mingma turned her solemn brown eyes on Karen. "I am the best, so he hire me to care for you."

Karen stared at Mingma, at the woman she thought she knew, and realized her jaw hung open. Snapping it shut, she then asked, "When? You mean today?"

"No. When you come to Mount Anaya. Warlord, he saw you in Kathmandu, and he know right away he would make you his."

"Did he now?" Warlord had been watching her on the train, and she hadnat noticed. Shead been too busy fending off a pa.s.s from Phil. At the time shead thought Phil was the worst lecher shead have to contend with in Nepal. What a fool shead beena"about everything.

"When he realized where you were going, he came to me. He said you would need someone to protect you. So I bring my lucky bells and hang them on your tent, and powerful soil from the G.o.d on Everest and spread it under your feet. Morning and night I say the prayers of defense from the Evil One, and at night I add sleep weed to your dinner so you not hear the cries from the mountain and go crazy and seek those who are lost." As if she expected praise, Mingma smiled and bowed.

Karen did not smile. "So you worked for him. You always worked for him. You came because heas paying you."

"Yes, miss."

In less than twenty-four hours Karen had seen death, faced evil, embraced life, and discovered that her lover, her rescuer, was a warlord. The warlord. Yet this betrayal hurt her more than anything shead seen or faced. "I trusted you," she whispered.

"Of course. As I trust you. We are sisters." Mingma seemed so calm, as if she didnat know shead deceived Karen.

"No. Sisters donat hurt each other."

"I have not hurt you. I have cared for you and watched over you when your lover could not."

"For money!"

"Miss, I have a son, sixteen years old. Here, the schools are not good. So I send him to your United States, and pay for him to live with an American family and prepare for college. He is smart. He does well." Mingma glowed with pride. "So I pay."

"You pay for his life with mine."

"No, miss. Warlord is the best soldier here. He holds control." Mingma showed her clenched fist. "He will keep you safe."

"I donat want to be safe. I want to be gone!"

"He wants you here. Why should your desire be held higher than his?"

They were talking in circles.

Karen seethed with frustration. "Fine. Youare his creature. So stay away from me."

"But, miss, I have your breakfast."

"Put it outside the door. Iall get it when I get my appet.i.te back." Karen ducked back into the tent and stalked across the plush rug.

Mingma. Mingma had betrayed her.

She hadnat seen that one coming. And why not? Shead worked in construction as a project manager, where every con man and wastrel flocked to her jobs in the hopes of cheating the stupid little woman. Shead learned the hard way not to trust anyone.

Yet Mingma had slipped under her guard.

Thank G.o.d her father would never know. Thank G.o.d . . . yeah, because if she didnat break out of this prison, shead end up being some wacko warlordas plaything until he tired of her, or until the end of her life, and those two events might coincide closely.

There had to be a way out of here. No self-respecting wacko would leave himself without an escape route.

Head placed the tent high on a platform against a cliff. Warlord was too canny to have done that by accident.

She lifted the heavy tapestry that covered the back wall, and examined the weather-resistant tent fabric.

There.

A seam snaked up from the floor to a spot about halfway up the wall. Karen knelt and ran her fingers along the length. The work was done as an afterthought, the seam basted together by clear, strong nylon thread. She tried to tear ita"impossible. A knife, something sharp . . . She ran to the holster strapped to one of the uprights on the headboard.

Empty.

Glancing around, she grabbed a gold-plated serving tray off the table and used the edge to saw through the thread above the knot, then slipped the st.i.tching free. She spread the material and looked out.