Beyond the Dark by Knight Angela & Holly Emma & Leigh Lora & Whiteside Diane

Author:Knight, Angela & Holly, Emma & Leigh, Lora & Whiteside, Diane [Knight, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Anthologies, Paranormal, General, Romance, Fantasy, Adult, Erotica, Fiction, Short Stories
ISBN: 9780425218761
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Published: 2007-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

TO Memnon’s mind, Queen Tou’s palace was oddly situated, the land surrounding it too far from the Indypt’s floodplain to cultivate on a useful scale. Odder yet, it wasn’t built on a promontory or carved into a cliff, either of which would have been more defendable. Still, Memnon knew Tou’s men controlled the wadis that led to it. He’d spotted enough of them on the sandstone ramparts, silently watching him and his guard traverse the old riverbed.

Memnon’s men had touched their weapons as they walked, though none had drawn so much as an inch of blade. The prince appreciated the discipline that had demanded. To walk peaceably beneath enemy eyes had made the back of his neck crawl.

Not just enemy eyes, he reminded himself. Those eyes belonged to his captors.

The final approach to the palace was lined not with palms but with obelisks two times the height of a man. The moon spilled like water down their highly polished sides. Red granite, he thought, the color hard to discern at night. Thanks to the sharpness of the shadows, the writing that was chiseled into their surface read clear as noon. Queen Tou had quite a lot of victories to brag about. Memnon wondered how long it would take her tale of the fall of Kemet to join the rest. No doubt, his own small, humbled figure would be carved into the stone as well.

A long reflecting pool marked the end of the avenue. An easy stroll beyond that the palace complex stretched. Hhamoun was larger than Memnon expected: graceful and wide and more than a match for his father’s royal precincts.

“We should wash here,” Nico suggested. Memnon’s second-in-command had refused to leave his prince’s safety on this journey in any hands but his. “They will send people soon to meet us, and we don’t want to look like this.”

Memnon’s jaw clenched as he gazed at the beautiful torchlit palace, where in a matter of minutes he would be transformed from prince to possession. His throat felt as rough as the fine gold sand that was coating it.

“No one bathes,” he ordered, just as Paneb’s pet, Zahi, bent to splash his face. “If the queen doesn’t like the honest stink of soldiers, she can damn well send me back.”

Nico took one look at Memnon’s slitted eyes and thought better of his protest. It was a petty triumph, but for the moment it was all Memnon had.

Their escort appeared soon enough, rendering his small rebellion moot. They were led into a hippostyle courtyard lined with Tou’s soldiers and told to wait. Her men stood at attention and uttered not a word, obliging Memnon’s to do the same. His guard looked thoroughly unkempt from their journey up the river and across the sand. Memnon had to fight a smile for his own childishness.

And then Tou was coming up the corridor that led into the grand courtyard. Memnon was not the only of his men to jerk a bit straighter. Her form was curved to perfection, her stride as seductive as the handmaiden of a god.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.