With a scream trapped in her throat, she saw Niko, fighting with two swords, crisscross them through the innards of one of the Janissaries.

His opponent crumpled.

"Princess!" he called to her. "To us!"

"Behind you!" she shrieked in answer.

Niko whirled around and took on the next opponent as Kemal reached for her.

"You little fool. I will kill you myself before I'll let them take you," he said. Then he barked an unintelligible order at two of his brethren.

They immediately retreated from the battle at the cave's mouth and came for Sophia.

With his sword, Kemal pointed deeper into the cave as he gave them some instructions. Listening to their swift exchange, Sophia fought back panic, wondering if her end was upon her.

While Kemal stalked forward to do battle with her guards, the other two swarthy Janissaries grabbed her by her arms and began dragging her back deeper into the cave.

"Let go! Where are you taking me?"

"Shut up! You're more trouble than you're worth, infidel witch."

"If it was up to me, we'd cut your throat and be done with it," the taller one muttered. She believed he was called Zacarias.

"Help! I'm here! Timo! Gabriel!"

"Not another word, or we cut your tongue out, understand?" the shorter man, bearded and thick-bodied, threatened her in French. She had heard the others call him Osman.

When Osman gave her a warning look and showed her his curved dagger, exactly like the one they had found at the scene of the ambush, Sophia clamped her mouth shut.

"Ali Pasha will probably like her better if we mute her, anyway," Zacarias opined as they half dragged, half-carried her farther into the cave. "I know I would."

With Kemal now having joined the fight at the mouth of the cave, her men were having a harder time of it. Still, she did not see Gabriel.

Had she been wrong all along? Had he not come? Had he washed his hands of her after she had dismissed him from this post?

Maybe she had misjudged him as completely as she had misjudged Alexa.

G.o.d, if she was so naive that she could not tell her friends from her enemies, what business did she have ruling a country, anyway? Lord Griffith had been wise to doubt her.

In the din of battle, n.o.body seemed to notice that she was being smuggled away. The floor of the cave tilted downward into the mountain. The darkness deepened to the claustrophobic black of the tomb, and all three of them moved carefully.

"This way," Zacarias muttered, feeling his way along a left-hand turn in the slope.

Inching through the lightless void, she realized after a time that she could feel a draft of air coming in, trailing against her face. After another twenty blind steps or so, they reached a fissure in the rocks where a little rivulet no more than three feet wide trickled out of the mountainside.

The water escaped by an opening in the rock just big enough for a person to slip through; this, Sophia and her captors now did, first treading carefully over a couple of big, flat stones above the water's flow, and then climbing out silently into the thick pine woods.

As Sophia stepped out into the world again, free of the pitch-black cavern, new hope rushed into her. Now, if she could just get away from these two thugs, she could escape like Alexa had. She stole a quick glance around to get her bearings.

To her right, a steep, pebbled path led down the slope, hugging the rocky dome. Uphill, to her left, she saw they were not too distant from the cave's mouth, where the battle still raged.

She had to let her men know that her captors were trying to move her again, or their attempt to rescue her would fail-and she doubted they would get another chance.

n.o.body's taking me to Ali Pasha. Shrugging off their threats of cutting out her tongue, she rallied herself with a fresh surge of fight, and began thrashing, trying to pull free of them as soon as she had stepped down from the stony fissure in the rock. "Help! I'm here! Let go of me!" she shouted, but almost at once, Zacarias grabbed her and clapped his hand over her mouth, stilling her struggles with a violent jerk.

"Not another word from you!" Osman whispered in her face with a greasy sneer. "You walk properly, or we will cut your feet off and drag you."

Her bound hands balled into fists, but the moment Zacarias let go of her mouth, she spat off the taste of his hand. "Is that all you know how to do, threaten people?" she asked fiercely.

"No," Osman replied. "I also know how to kill them. Do you wish me to demonstrate, Princess?"

She subsided into mutinous silence and gave up on fighting them for now, lest she provoke them into carrying out one of their bloodthirsty threats.

"Come on," Zacarias muttered. "Let's get to the horses."

As they started down the precarious angle of the rocky path in single file with Sophia between them, she was still bold enough to steal one last angry glance over her shoulder toward the cave.

And it was then that she caught a fleeting glimpse of a large, black silhouette outlined before the flames.

Watching her.

Gabriel.

Astonishment made her stumble over a rock as she continued their descent.

"Watch where you're going!" Zacarias snapped when she knocked into his back before quickly catching her balance.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"Hold onto her or she'll send us all falling down the cliffside, clumsy wench."

Osman did as he was told, clutching her arm with a grip that hurt.

"Ow," she complained, but as she looked over her shoulder again, pretending that her only purpose was to scowl at him, she saw that the man-shaped shadow had vanished again, as if it had been no more than a trick of the smoke. Was he truly here? Had Gabriel come for her, or was her mind merely playing tricks on her now?

Zacarias led the way with his rifle at the ready, hurrying them down toward the pine grove where the horses and carriage had been concealed among the trees.

The noise of the battle by the cave's mouth grew m.u.f.fled in the distance, the shouts and guns' reports blunted by the soft ma.s.s of pine needles, yet the rock faces here and there did strange things with the sound. Intangible echoes seemed to reverberate from the wrong direction. Above, the indigo sky glistened with stars and a sharp crescent moon.

"Where are the horses?" Zacarias blurted out, peering into the shadows ahead.

"By the Prophet, I do not know! A little farther on! Keep going. It's hard to tell in the dark."

"Wait." Ahead, Zacarias halted.

Sophia nearly stumbled into him again, but Osman yanked her to a rough halt. "What is it?" he demanded.

"I thought I saw something ahead."

"The horses!" Osman said impatiently.

"No," he clipped out. "Is your weapon drawn?"

"Of course. Would you move? We have to keep going! If we fail, Kemal will kill us."

With a mutter, Zacarias pressed on, but now Sophia could feel it, too. A presence in the darkness.

They were not alone.

They were being watched.

She held her breath, her pulse a wild staccato.

Gabriel.

She knew now that it was he, as though her heart could see in the darkness where her eyes could not.

She could feel his presence. She knew him too well to be mistaken. No, he was here. He was very close.

And she could almost smell the doom that overhung these two unsuspecting fellows.

Any moment now, he was going to strike. She told herself to be ready...

"Move, girl!" Osman's curt order cut into her thoughts.

"I tell you, there is something out here," Zacarias mumbled as they pressed on.

"Or someone," Osman corrected him uneasily. "Hurry up, then."

"Man or beast? Or both?" Sophia whispered, taunting them to keep them off balance. "Maybe it's a bear. Or a big...hungry...mountain lion."

"She could be right," Osman said uneasily, glancing around into the trees. "A catamount could have smelled the horses and come hunting."

Zacarias stopped abruptly, holding up his hand and staring forward. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear wh-" Osman started impatiently, but behind her, his words broke off with a strange gurgle.

Sophia did not even turn to look. She ducked down, dropping to her knees to clear the route for Gabriel's dagger. It flew through the air above her head like a lightning bolt, striking Zacarias in the base of his throat the second he spun around to see what was happening.

He crumpled and rolled a little farther down the rocky path.

The next thing Sophia knew, she was lifted, scooped up into Gabriel's arms. Without a word, he hoisted her over his shoulder.

As she quickly held onto him, she caught a glimpse of portly Osman behind her, his eyes wide open in surprise. A bayonet was sticking all the way through his thick neck, the tip poking out beneath his ear.

Zacarias had hastened his own death by a few minutes, instinctively pulling the knife out with his last seconds of strength. Now a river of blood, black in the darkness, poured out of the hole at the base of his throat where he lay. It trickled down the stones like a tiny mountain rill.

Sophia could only stare at the carnage in shocked disbelief at how fast it had happened. Gabriel did not say a word, but secured her over his left shoulder as though she weighed nothing. Rounding the dying man, he began racing down the narrow path, his body angled to the side; leading with his right foot, he kept his left arm clamped across her backside, while using his right arm for balance, his big, black carbine c.o.c.ked and loaded in his hand.

Sophia was no wilting flower, but she was a bit in shock. She held onto his waist for dear life, saying not a word, and trying not to move too much so as not to upset his balance. She did not bother asking why he didn't let her just walk for herself-she was not about to question anything that he saw fit to do-but instead, she kept a weather eye out for anyone who might be coming down the path behind them.

The progress he made with his mountain-goat agility carried them down swiftly to the pine grove where only one horse waited: his. The rest were gone, the sentry a.s.signed to guard the animals facedown in the pine mulch.

Gabriel didn't even set her on her feet, but put her right on the horse. "Sit astride."

She did, swinging her leg over the saddle.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

"Give me your wrists." She turned to him but could not help cowering slightly from the deadly creature as he slid yet another knife out of a compact sheath against his ribs and quickly cut the ropes.

He noted her momentary fear of him with a grim glance. Sophia tried to hide it as she threw the loosened ropes aside and rubbed her chafed wrists. But she could not help staring at him, rather wide-eyed.

A fleeting memory of her first meeting with him sailed through her mind. That morning in the old barn, she had pulled her knife on him with no inkling of how she had been taking her life in her hands by threatening him.

"Are you all right?" he clipped out as he pa.s.sed a hard, a.s.sessing glance over her face.

Sophia nodded, but suddenly, from her vantage point astride the horse, she saw motion farther up the path.

"Gabriel, they're coming!" she whispered, pointing.

He sent a piercing glance over his shoulder, then turned to her with a cold, silvery gleam in his eyes that was downright terrifying. "I'll take care of them."

"Can't we just go?" she breathed, touching his hand.

"No. I don't want them following us. Move deeper into the trees," he ordered in a low, hard tone. "Wait for me. I won't have you going off by yourself. If I should fall, then ride. Right here is a knife and a pair of loaded pistols, should you need them." He showed her the additional weapons strapped to the horse's gear. "Hopefully it won't come to that, but if it does, you'll need to ride hard to get down the mountain. Take the road-these hillsides are too treacherous. Ride as fast as you can go. As soon as you've crossed the little bridge across the stream, turn west off the road. A hundred yards up the next slope into the woods, you'll find a cave with supplies. Have you got that?"

"Yes." She knew she could not stop him. Her hand atop his tightened. "Gabriel-be careful. Please. I need you."

He captured her fingers lightly and gazed at her for a second. Then he closed his eyes with an impa.s.sioned look and pressed her knuckles to his lips. "Princess," he breathed against her skin. When he released her hand, she touched his face ever so briefly, but he pulled away and grabbed hold of the horse's reins, starting the animal in the right direction. "Out of sight, now. Hide," he ordered, glancing quickly over his shoulder.

Farther up the path, there was activity but very little sound. It seemed that the other Janissaries had just discovered their dead comrades.

Gabriel looked at Sophia again, his jaw tightening. By the moon's glow she could see the sheen of sweat on his face. "Do not come out under any circ.u.mstances."

"But-"

"I am just one man, Sophia. You must think of your people."

"You're more than that to me. You're everything..."

"Go," he whispered fiercely.

With one last, searing look, she obeyed, urging her horse deeper into the thicket while he prowled off with stealthy speed to get into position for whatever dreadful fate he had planned for the new arrivals.

She guided the horse quickly down a little slope, but she could still see into the clearing where Gabriel now lay in wait for the enemy.