39
Your heart misses a beat the instant you recognize the face of this unhappy young woman. It is Oriah, the highborn daughter of the Funtal of Fio Fadali, the runaway who travelled with you aboard The Pride of Sommerlund on its ill-fated voyage out of Barrakeesh. Ever since she was abducted in the mountain town of Kilij you thought it unlikely that you would ever see her again. Yet here she sits, alone and dejected in a hall that is overflowing with an abundance of riches.
‘Oriah?’ you whisper hesitantly, hardly daring to believe that it is really her. She raises her head and her eyes widen with shocked surprise when she sees you. Then a smile, filled with hope and joy, lights up her tear-streaked face. She leaps from her chair and comes running to you to throw herself into your arms.
‘Oh, Grand Master,’ she sobs, ‘I never thought that I’d see you again. How did you know that I was here?’
You tell Oriah of what has happened since you arrived in Ghol-Tabras, and that you had no idea that she was here at all. She explains that after she was abducted by slavers in Kilij, she was sold to Sesketera who brought her here to his citadel. She is to be kept imprisoned in this hall until their wedding day, one month from now.
‘Let us escape from this place together,’ you say, but she shakes her head.
‘No, it cannot be. Sesketera is holding my friends. They are his hostages. If I leave the citadel before our wedding day he will put them to the sword. I cannot leave. But I know how I may help you to escape. Come, Grand Master, follow me.’
