As Ruha's fingers closed around the hilt of the venomous jambiya, she thought of the man who had sent the treacherous weapon here with Bhadla. She was wrong, she realized, for at least one very important thing remained to her. Yhekal was still alive, the Zhentarim were still in Anauroch, and the Bedine needed her magic to win the victory.
Ruha removed Ajaman's jambiya from the sheath on her belt and replaced it with the poisoned blade Bhadla had carried into her tent. "I know what you would want, my love," she whispered. "I will not fail you."
Sa'ar's concerned voice sounded at her tent entrance. "Ruha, Lander!" he cried, bustling into the tent. "The warriors say there was a stream of fire and-"
The burly sheikh stopped next to Ruha and stared at Lander's lifeless face. Utaiba entered a few steps behind him, but Sa'ar quickly turned to him. "Something terrible has happened."
Utaiba reactions were quick. He turned to the men following him. "Post a guard. Nobody is to enter this khreima," he said. "Not even another sheikh. If anybody asks why-"
"Tell them I am preparing my magic and it is very dangerous," Ruha called.
The warriors turned to obey, then Utaiba stepped to Sa'ar's side. The two sheikhs stood next to each other, staring at Lander's body with rueful expressions on their faces. Ruha could not tell whether they were angry or despondent, but she had no doubt that they were shocked. Neither of them said a word or looked at Ruha, nor did they show any sign of grief.
Finally Sa'ar reached down and pulled Ruha's veil across her face, tucking it into her headwrap. "I suspect that the Zhentarim did not uncover your face, any more than they removed Lander's sword belt from his waist," the sheikh said.
Ruha did not bother to deny his charge. Though she held it in her hands, she had not yet wrapped her own belt around her aba, and it was obvious that neither she nor Lander had been fully dressed when the assassins entered her khreima.
Utaiba said, "You have cursed us all!"
"It was not my love that poisoned Lander," Ruha snapped, wrapping her belt around her waist. "It was the laziness of your sentries!" She pointed at the assassins she had killed with her fire stream. "How did so many Zhentarim escape Orofin?"
"When you and Lander broke the widow's taboo, your husband's spirit made them invisible," Sa'ar answered confidently.
"As you can see, they were not invisible when they reached us," Ruha countered. "Do not ascribe your men's ineptitude to spirits!"
Sa'ar's face clouded over with anger, and his jaw slackened in astonishment. "How dare you blame us!" he snapped. "The Bedine will pay the price for your lust! You and Lander caused this tragedy, no one else."
"We caused nothing," Ruha cried, still kneeling next to Lander's body. "We loved each other, and not even Ajaman's spirit would begrudge us that. But you are ready to forsake the man who risked his life to warn you of the Zhentarim in the first place! I wish I were a djinn! I would lay a curse on all of you!"
"Perhaps you are a djinn.," Sa'ar retorted, reaching for his jambiya.
In an instant, Ruha pointed a hand at the sheikh and summoned an incantation. "If you draw your weapon against me before Lander is washed and buried, I will burn even your bones to ashes."
Sa'ar stopped, then glanced at the Zhentarim whom Ruha had charred earlier. At the same time, he did not push his dagger back into its scabbard, for he was not the kind of man to back down from any confrontation.
"What shall it be?" Ruha asked, her fingers already rehearsing the spell gestures.
"It makes no difference," Sa'ar replied, growling. "I can die of fire tonight or thirst tomorrow."
Utaiba stepped between the angry pair. "Do not violate your host duty by threatening the beloved of your guest," the sheikh said, gently laying a hand on Sa'ar's and pushing the jambiya back into its scabbard. Next he turned to Ruha.
"And you should not make the mistake of thinking that because we are not overcome with anguish, we do not grieve the loss of the Harper. As a warrior, he would recognize the need for clear thinking and decisive action at a time like this."
"What is there to think about?" Ruha asked.
"What is there to do?" added Sa'ar. "We are doomed."
"That may be," agreed Utaiba. "Certainly the violation of the widow's taboo is a bad omen. If the warriors hear of it, they will lose their spirit." He cast a melancholy look on Lander's lifeless face, then continued. "Still, we must attack. We have nothing to lose. As you have pointed out, Sa'ar, if we do not die in the morning, thirst will kill us by evening."
Sa'ar looked thoughtful, then took his hand away from his scabbard and met Ruha's gaze. "Utaiba speaks wisely, as always," he said. "If your husband's spirit has cursed us, there is nothing we can do about it now. We have no choice except to fight. Let us do it together."
Realizing that the gesture was as close to an apology as she would get from the proud sheikh, Ruha dismissed the spell from her mind. "Ajaman was only my husband for three days," the widow said, "But I knew him well enough to say that, even if his spirit were angry with me, he would do nothing to prevent us from destroying the Zhentarim and avenging the death of his tribe."
"Then you will help us tomorrow?" Utaiba asked.
"I have more deaths than any Bedine to avenge," Ruha replied, running her hands over Lander's brow and closing his eyes. As she slipped his head off her lap and stood, she said, "I am hurt that you must ask."
"Good, that is something," Utaiba said. "We must think of something to tell the warriors so that they will not take Lander's death as a bad omen."
Ruha took a sleeping carpet from one of her kuerabiches and spread it over the Harper's body. "They will not hear of Lander's death."
"How can you hope to keep such a thing secret? Every camp already knows that the Zhentarim attacked you and Lander," objected Sa'ar. "When they do not see him in the morning, they will know he died. They will assume your husband's spirit arranged it."
"Tell your men that Lander and I killed the assassins," Ruha said. "Tomorrow, he will join them in battle."
The two sheikhs looked at each other with mixed expressions of nervousness and skepticism.
Ruha did not give them time to argue. "Tell the sheikhs that Lander was not hurt by the attack, but that I was terrorized. That will keep anyone from wanting to see him tonight and give me time to prepare."
The sheikhs nodded. "We can do that much," Utaiba confirmed.
Ruha pointed at the dead Zhentarim. "Those men had to come from somewhere," she said. "And I don't believe they sneaked past our sentry's noses. We must find out how they left Orofin. Perhaps we can use their route to our advantage."
"A good thought," Sa'ar confirmed.
Ruha considered the two sheikhs for few more moments, then said, "Utaiba, would you bring me Lander's djebiras?" When a scowl flashed across the wiry sheikh's face, Ruha quickly added, "I'd ask you to send a guard, but he would gossip, and that's the last thing we need right now."
The frown disappeared from the man's face, and he nodded. "Of course, you are right. I will be back soon."