The sand was hot on my bare feet as I walked two steps behind my captor, a fatatan assassin of the rimal. I was naked but for my chains. My wrists were locked behind me while my feet were hobbled by a short set of links. An iron leash connected my sunburnt neck to my enemy’s hand. I was a prince of the Levant but now I was also a prisoner.
The girl who held me in bondage was not imposing. She was short and slim but I knew she carried the sting of a scorpion in her frame. The bruises on my body were proof of that.
That had been my mistake, underestimating her. She had come upon me while I bathed in an oasis. She dazzled me with her alluring voice. Trained in the arts of seduction her whole life. I had no reason to suspect. Girls often threw themselves at me for the privilege of a night with a prince. I should have known the moment I tasted that spice on her lips, like cinnamon and dates. It was a sleeping drug often used by the females of the caste of assassins to incapacitate their prey.