Chapter 22
“Sara!” Natasha ran to her, leaving Ruth and Jassim behind. Sara hugged the child, dreading the next question. When it came she tried to smile confidently.
“Is Daddy here?”
She saw the warning look on Ruth’s face. “Not yet, Natasha.” She ignored the disappointed, questioning look and pressed on. “And how are you? What do you think of all this?” Sara lifted her arm and swept it in an expansive movement towards the worked stone roof.
“It’s a bit spooky, but I like it mostly. I miss Mummy.”
Sara looked at Ruth, then Jassim. Their faces were inscrutable. Had Jassim heard of their altercation?
They walked on towards the east passages where Ruth had her quarters. Sara decided to tackle the problem head-on. “Ruth, we must talk.” One arm wrapped protectively around Natasha, she touched Ruth’s shoulder. To her surprise, Ruth’s face softened. She took Sara’s offered hand and clasped it.
“Yes. We can go to my chamber. Jassim?”
“I will take the girl.” Jassim turned to Natasha. “Come, little one. We shall do some exploring.”
Natasha looked at Sara for affirmation. She pursed her lips and nodded. “It’s all right. I’ll see you later.”
The sisters watched Jassim lead Natasha away along the passage. The girl looked back once and gave a small wave. Sara’s heart went out to her. She took a deep breath and smiled at Ruth. “Come.”
“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s been — so hard.” Ruth sat, contrite, hands in her lap. Passive.
“I understand.” Sara sipped her drink, a warm concoction of herbs and fruit. “Believe me, I do.”
“Did you love him so much?” Ruth asked. “The girl’s father?”
Sara stared into her cup, steam rising from the heady mixture. She felt uneasy, wondering at her sister’s shift in mood. Ruth had always been constant in temper, pouring calm on her troubled waters. Sara wasn’t sure if she knew this person any more. She nodded slowly. “Yes, yes I did — I do.”
“But you came back.”
“I had no choice. You know that.”
Ruth came and sat next to Sara. “You came for the child, not him. Not for the Korumak. Kadesh knows that, but—” she smiled, a faraway look in her eye, “he will not hurt you.” She took Sara’s hand and squeezed it. “If you stay. He cares for you too much. But the girl, I don’t know—”
“Surely he wouldn’t harm her.”
Ruth shook her head. “He has changed. He is obsessed with revenge. Since his father died he has taken the anger to himself. Remember it was a Dracup who stole our treasure all those years ago. And now another Dracup has killed his brother, Tarshish. In Kadesh’s mind, an eye for an eye is the only retribution that will satisfy.”
Sara swallowed hard. “She is a child. A little girl.”
“He doesn’t see it like that. He sees only the crime.”
Sara held her head in her hands. “Can’t you persuade him? You have looked after Natasha well—”
“He is playing with me. One minute he says he will spare her, the next—” Ruth raised her hands in a gesture of hopelessness.
“He should have left his bitterness behind,” Sara whispered. “What is done is done. Why cause further pain? The girl will be our undoing — God will judge him for taking her.”
“No. Kadesh wants what God himself wants.” Ruth said the words slowly, as if their weight would make them true.
Sara changed tack. Natasha’s fate seemed to strike a note of urgency in her sister. She had to exploit that while she could. “I have to get her out.” Sara watched Ruth carefully. She remembered the wild-eyed Ruth, the stinging slap to the face.
“Yes, yes. I know.” Ruth bowed her head. “I know. I can’t keep her. Not when her life is at risk.”
Sara hugged her sister. “I love you, Ruth. I’ll help in any way I can. But we have to think. We may not have much time.”
“He’ll come after you.”
“We have to give Natasha a chance.”
“If he finds you he will kill you.”
“He may kill me anyway. I failed, as Ibrahim failed.”
“But you have returned as he commanded.”
“The copies Simon made… it was my responsibility. Kadesh knew — and then poor Ibrahim. Oh Ruth, I’m so scared.”
Ruth began to hum, a low, smooth sound like the wind soughing through the upper caves. She opened her arms. “Hold me.”
Sara looked at her sister and saw the dark rings beneath her eyes, the lines of disappointment at the corners of her mouth. She frowned and touched Ruth’s cheek. Ruth responded by running her fingers through Sara’s hair, a gentle, soothing motion and then began to sing softly, a song their mother had taught them. She combed and brushed, combed and brushed, and for a moment they were children again; the burden of their future lay ahead, not behind them. Sara joined the chorus and as their voices blended she felt a hard pain in her throat, the prelude to tears. “We were happy once, weren’t we?”
“Yes,” Ruth said. “Yes, my sister.” Her voice was soft and unhurried.
Sara turned and inhibited the comb’s progress with a light pressure. “Come with me. We will leave together. We can go anywhere.”
Ruth hung her head. The comb fell to the ground with a clatter. “Don’t you think I’ve thought of that? Every day I think: today is the day I will leave him. Never to come back.” She seemed to shrink, her body wilting into itself. “I want to be free, Sara. But I cannot. I have to be here.”
“Close to him?” Sara nodded and caressed her sister’s cheek. She understood. “I will pray for your heart’s desire, sister. Tomorrow is not for us to know; only God knows the future. We both have to trust in Him.” She squeezed Ruth’s thin hand. They were sisters; they had to support each other. “Will you help me?”
Ruth tilted her pale face up to Sara’s and gave a weak smile. “You know I will.”
The women met no one on their way to the stream. They had chosen this time of day for its stillness. Above the deep, the sun would be at its zenith. Sara linked her arm in Ruth’s as they walked. They spoke in guarded whispers until they reached the waterfall, confident that its roar would drown their voices.
“They are dealing in weapons,” Ruth told Sara. “Kadesh is meeting with the enemies of the United States.”
“With insurgents?” Sara gasped. “What is this? We have no need to walk with such people.”
“Protection. Money. Long term. These are the words they use,” Ruth replied.
“Tell me Kadesh hasn’t opened the caverns to men like this.” Sara put her jar down and seized her sister’s arm. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“They have a meeting place — far from here. Their vehicles return laden with guns.”
“But what does Kadesh offer in return?”
Ruth smiled. “Safe passage. Guides, who travel the old routes and assist their comings and goings.”
Sara swallowed. This was all wrong. It could only lead to disaster. “These men will take what they can then destroy us. Kadesh is jeopardising everything.” She had a terrible vision of armed terrorists wandering the tunnels of her home, the staccato of sub-machine gun fire invading the tranquillity of millennia.