2
SECONDS AFTER THEY’D EMERGED into the forecourt there was another explosion, this one leaving a ringing sound in Ella’s ears. Or had that already been there? Nothing made sense and the side of her head was throbbing. She lifted a hand to it, feeling the skin that had been dashed by a projectile. Her fingers came away tacky, covered in warm, wet blood.
“I’m bleeding.”
His stride didn’t falter. His hand around her legs was firm and tight, and despite the indignity of being carried dangling over his shoulder, she felt safe. She lifted her head towards the palace, gasping at the sight of so much damage. How had this happened? Security for the event had been incredibly tight – body scans, all equipment had been passed through x-ray machines, identities triple checked by guards. More importantly, why had someone done this?
To disrupt the peace? To return the whole region to instability? A shiver that had nothing to do with the explosion ran down her spine.
A moment later, there was another noise. Not a bomb, but loud and mechanical and she flinched, her nerves already at breaking point.
He said something in his own language, words that were foreign and husky, then he was lifting her from his shoulder, placing her on a sun-warmed seat. She blinked, quickly identifying the cockpit of a helicopter.
“Whose is this?”
He didn’t respond. His lips were a grim line in his face as he slammed the door shut and came around to the other side of the chopper, stepping in and taking the seat beside her at almost the exact same moment he flicked switches so that the rotor blades above them began to spin.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from here.” He spared her a brief glance. “Do your seatbelt.”
She nodded, reached behind her for the strap, but her fingers were shaking too much to grab hold of it. She uttered a frustrated curse and a moment later his hand was stretching across her, taking the belt from its holster and bringing it across her waist, low down on her hips. It was swift and efficient, an act brought out of a concern for her safety and nothing else. Her incredibly elevated heart rate had nothing to do with the way his fingers had brushed her thighs, and everything to do with the unfolding tragedy they were fleeing.
“Do you know how to fly this thing?” Her teeth chattered together.
His only response was to flick another switch; the helicopter lifted off the ground, sand forming a cloud around them. She held her breath, looking back towards the palace, half-expecting someone to chase after them, to tell them they couldn’t leave until the investigation was complete.
“There are people in there who need our help,” she said, trying to pull her thoughts together. “We have to go back.”
“Go back?” He shook his head. “Impossible.”
“But they’re –,”
Even as she spoke, an enormous plume of dust rose from the air. Ella looked towards the palace and lifted a hand to her lips. Half of it had fallen to the ground. “Oh my God.” She turned back to her rescuer. “It’s destroyed.”
His face was grim. “Yes.”
“But why?”
He didn’t respond. She dug her fingernails into her palms, her breath shallow. She reached for her handbag at her feet then realised she hadn’t brought it; it was still in the palace, in ruins now, her cell phone inside.
“I have to let Tasim know I’m okay,” she said, the words a little slurred from the trauma of what had happened. “He’ll be so worried.”
“Not now.”
“I can’t. I left my handbag. My phone.”
He nodded, banking the helicopter hard to the right so she reached out, grabbing hold of the front of the dashboard. Her pulse was racing far too fast.
He flew low to the ground, moving away from the ancient city of Nmala and over a wide expanse of desert, before lifting higher as a mountain range loomed out of nowhere.
Ella had no concept of how much time passed, she knew only that her breathing had calmed down a little by the time he started moving the helicopter lower still, as though he was bringing it into land. She leaned forward, craning to see beneath them. Rocky mountains covered in trees, and a stream running across them, was all she could identify.
She pressed a hand to her head, the pain there worsening, tiredness setting in.
“Don’t sleep.” The words were curt, given as an order, from a man who was obviously used to making such decrees.
But her eyes were heavy, her body strangely exhausted. She blinked, forcing herself to sit upright. “What the hell happened?”