Part 42 (1/2)

”No,” Gabriel said gently, though his eyes were flintyhard. ”Now that you've come, they're going to be expecting something. By the time the first-rates get here, our best opportunity will have already pa.s.sed.”

She dropped her gaze; Father Nectarios noticed her hurt look and glanced at her in concern.

”Well, then, gentlemen, G.o.dspeed,” she murmured. ”If you will excuse me.”

They bowed as she took leave of them and withdrew to her chamber-as if she could escape the parting that was about to descend on her like the hounds of h.e.l.l.

But it was inescapable.

Trembling, she sat on the edge of her bed and waited for Gabriel to come, with a sense of impending doom.

All too soon, he slipped into her chamber, closing the door behind him with barely a sound. She rose and drew in her breath when she saw him all dressed in black for his mission like he had been that night on the mountain, armed to the teeth once more.

She wanted to back away from him when he came toward her, as if her refusal to tell him good-bye could stop him from going. Her heart pounded and her stomach tied itself up in knots as he rested his hands on her shoulders and gazed tenderly into her eyes.

No words came.

Sophia threw her arms around him, ignoring various holsters and sheaths, and hugged him with all her might. Squeezing her eyes shut, she fought back tears and the horrifying awareness of the violence ahead and the very stark fact that she might never see her man again.

But if this was good-bye, then her parting gift to him would be her courage. If she never saw him again, the last image of her that she wanted him to take away was one of strength. She refused to cry.

She had given her heart to a warrior and now the moment had come to prove herself worthy of his sacrifice and his gallantry.

Gabriel would not flinch before his duty, after all; to honor him, she would do the same, even if the soul in her was dying. A wave of pain swept through her as she held him, like a cruel and blasphemous inversion of the pleasure they had shared.

She touched his hair, his shoulders, his arms. She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it lovingly, then looked into his blue, blue eyes with the threat of tears in her own. She willed them back and cupped his hard, beautiful face for a moment.

”I will always love you,” she whispered calmly. ”Always. And if there's a child, I will tell him-everything about you.”

”Princess.” He crushed her to him and claimed her mouth. His kiss seared her very soul with his fiery pa.s.sion. When he ended it, he lowered himself slowly to his knees and kissed her belly for a long moment, his eyes closed.

Sophia caressed his raven hair.

He rose again and took her gently into his arms, grazing his lips along her forehead with a low, burning vow. ”I will come back to you.”

She trembled. G.o.d, please. But though it took every drop of royal blood in her veins to do so, she held on to her composure.

”I will be here,” she replied with her chin held high.

”You are so beautiful,” he whispered with complete understanding of her gift glimmering in his eyes.

”Thank you, my darling, for what you're about to do,” she said calmly, and then she did the hardest thing she had ever done in her twenty-one years.

She let him go.

As she stepped back, he bowed his head and brought both of her hands to his lips. He kissed them, looked one last time into her eyes, and then let her hands slide free of his light hold.

His cobalt stare burned into her heart forever.

Neither of them could speak, for the only word to be said, the one that neither could bear to say, was good-bye.

He took a deep breath, pivoted, and marched out with the grim, bristling air of a man on a mission.

A man with no fear of death.

That was what scared her. He should fear it. He should be careful. But he never would.

The moment the door had closed, Sophia crumbled.

Sinking to the floor, she put her head in her hands and wept.

Hours later, in absolute silence the longboats cut through the waves approaching the fortress island of Agnos, ten heavily armed men and several barrels of black powder to a boat. Navigating each light, fast craft were some of Kavros's ablest seamen.

Stealth was key.

Approaching the island from different directions like the five points of a star, they were setting up a coordinated attack. As soon as they landed, each jumped lightly out of the boats into the knee-deep water. Hefting the barrels on their backs, they sped the powder into place, rolling out the long fuse cords.

No doubt sentries were posted. They worked in total darkness to avoid being seen. The jagged outline of the fort loomed against the indigo sky.

With the explosives in place, they took up their positions for the second phase of their attack. Boulders on the beachhead would make fine cover for the rifle attack. Lastly, they would charge the fort itself and kill anyone who hadn't been shot or blown up already.

As for the sheik himself, they wanted him alive.

Gabriel waited for his men to signal they were ready. He glanced over his shoulder toward the sea, his mood keyed up. Though it was too dark to spy the smaller s.h.i.+ps that Commander Blake had ordered to give them cover, he knew they were there. Good man, Blake.

Gabriel had also decided to leave Timo back at the palace to guard Sophia. Of course, the hairy fellow had been disappointed to miss out on the fun, but if things went wrong, Gabriel had wanted to leave her with at least one man she knew she could trust completely. Whatever happened, he knew Timo would look after her.

Hang it all, but these Greeks had grown on him, he thought. Then the long-awaited signal came.

Everyone was ready.

He nodded to his team and then struck the flint.

The spark he used to light the fuse cord was the first warning the Janissaries even had that they were there.

Gabriel smiled darkly as the flame caught and began to race along the wire toward the stacked barrels of explosives.

”Morning, boys,” he murmured.

Then the men covered their ears and looked away as the first fiery crash tore through the night.

Sophia had tried to stay up waiting for news of the battle, but worn out from grief and from sheer exhaustion after the day's tour among her people, she had fallen asleep in her clothes a couple of hours before dawn.

Now, however, deep reverberations in the distance found their way into her sleep and shook her awake. Not thunder, not the deep rumble of an earthquake, but the sounds of battle.

It was happening. It had begun.

She opened her eyes and lifted her head from her pillow. How many hours had pa.s.sed? she wondered, but she did not wait to find out. The new day was only at first light as she jumped out of bed, rushed across the room to the balcony, grabbing her trusty knapsack along the way.

With shaking hands, she took out her folding telescope and tried to locate Agnos from her balcony. She struggled to hold the spygla.s.s steady despite her frightened trembling and searched the predawn sky until she saw black smoke rising in the distance. She gasped when an orange explosion flared out, so small with the miles between.