The world outside the city was not deserted. If anything, it had been easier to hide between the buildings. Leonidas left Samara and the tiger in a nook created by a recently collapsed building while he took one of her rings to bargain for clothes. They needed to cover the tiger, and Samara stood out as much as the tiger with her skin exposed. At the very least, he hoped the tiger could protect her from the mobs surrounding them. Knots of people were everywhere.  People were fleeing, coming to the city, and confusion was everywhere.  It was like the night before had not finished.

The ring turned out to be very valuable, and Leonidas bought new clothes for himself and Samara as well as a separate cloak to cover the tiger. It had a hood on it. He hoped it would make the tiger look like a sheep if it was drawn over its head. Leonidas did not know how the tiger would react to that.

As for food, he bought some with money from his own purse. He bought bread for himself and Samara and a hunk of meat for the tiger. He did not know how long a hungry tiger obeyed God instead of his hunger. Leonidas would rather not risk it.

When he had his supplies together, he returned to Samara. The tiger ate the cut of ox that Leonidas had brought him.

“Is it far? Will that be enough to tide him over?” he asked the harem girl.

“I hope,” she said in a voice reserved for prayer. “Thank you for helping me. I don’t know how to thank you.” She started removing the necklace around her neck.

“No,” he refused. “You might need that.”

“For what?” she asked, her eyes wide.

He replied steadily. “Aren’t you a little worried about what life you’ll lead after we’ve released the tiger?”

She gazed at him and shook her head. “No.”

“Why not?” he said, covering his clothes with the new cloak.

“I’m very valuable aside from the jewelry on my body,” she chuckled, holding the necklace out to him. “I know you can sell it and get a reward or maybe you could give it to your wife. I’m sure she’d love it so much she’d give you a son for it.”

Leonidas straightened and turned away. With his back to her, he said, “I do not have a wife.”

“I thought I heard Ciphas say that his brother had a wife,” she said softly in an apologetic whisper.

“That’s another brother,” he corrected. “I am the brother with no wife.”

“I see,” she said, gaining energy, “I just assumed you were married because your voice is so low. You might have had sons of your own by now.”

Leonidas did not answer and turned his back on Samara to give her privacy to arrange her clothes and to avoid commenting on what she said.  Ciphas’ voice was not low. That was because he became a eunuch when he was first being apprenticed out. His voice had not had the chance to drop.

Leonidas scratched under his hair and tried to focus on what mattered. For now, that was keeping his seething rage from ruining the good thing he had with Samara. She was a little like bait on a hook. If he had her, someone would notice something was off. Someone would notice she was the wrong person with the wrong person. She was a princess who belonged in the King’s harem, and even if the King was no longer a king, she would lead the trail back to him and to everyone else who was missing, including his brother.

That was what Leonidas thought until he turned around.

Samara had covered herself completely. In the plain dress with the headscarf and the veil, all her red hair was hidden, all her voluptuous body was out of sight, the markings on her face were washed clean, and only her yellowish eyes peered through the slit at him. Somehow, her yellow eyes had become brown, and they were suddenly almost like everybody else’s.

If she didn’t stand out, he might never find his brother.

Reluctantly, he handed her the cloak he had brought to cover the tiger, who was now finished eating and licking his paws with something like satisfaction. However, the hollow blue eyes of the beast saw Leonidas in a way he wasn’t remotely comfortable with. The tiger was obeying… for now. It was just as Samara said. She took the cloak, brought her head close to the tiger’s, and whispered something in his ear. If he was correct, she was whispering in a different language. What language did she use? He didn’t know. She said whatever she needed to say to force compliance from the tiger. Once covered, it didn’t look like a sheep, but it also didn’t look like a tiger.

They left the remains of the building, traversed the densest parts of the city, slipped through the gate post past the rebel centurions, and headed out into the wilds. The sun was setting. Normally, that was not a great time for traveling. The crowd they left behind was pushing into the city in preparation for nightfall. They moved against the flow.

Through the mountains, there was a valley with a relatively easy road to walk. It was easy in that they did not need to avoid thorny bushes or hike up steep hills, but it was a difficult road in that it was a place where travelers could be attacked. Being a party of two, Leonidas was concerned about traversing the path with only a harem princess as his companion. She certainly wouldn’t have his back, but she did have a tiger at her command, and that piece of meat he threw the tiger certainly wouldn’t be enough to keep his stomach full.

Leonidas was also banking on the fact that most of the rabble that usually attacked travelers had been busy the night before looting and would not be behaving like desperate highwaymen. They’d be drunk in their caves or rioting in the city.

Leonidas put his foot on the path, and Samara said, “We can’t go that way.”

“Why not?” he asked, turning his head, and not even thinking of pointing out the obvious dangers of taking the path he was choosing.

“No,” she said adamantly. “We need to walk God’s path.”

“God’s path?” He turned the rest of his body and rested his hand on the hilt of his scimitar.

She nodded and pointed directly up the first mountain. “We need to walk to the peak.”

He scoffed. “That’s a terrible path tonight. You will be exhausted before we’re a third of the way up. The tiger will be fine, but you… You will be begging me to carry you.  If we take this path, there is no major incline or decline.  It’s a flat road. It will be faster.”

She cast her eyes upward as if she could see through the clouds and see her God resting on his throne. “I will not ask you to carry me. I will walk every step myself.”

“It’s not just this mountain,” Leonidas told her in a voice that ached with frustration and prolonged fatigue. “There are two more mountains between us and the jungle. Can you walk all three?”

She nodded. “I can.”

He groaned. “I’m not sure I can!”

In the dissipating light, Samara let her eyes skim down Leonidas’s body. Her gaze hesitated on the place where his shoulder met his throat. She seemed to see him in a way he had never been seen before, seeing his knuckles, his tense tendons, the bones inside, the heave of his breath, and his heart beneath.

“Do you want me to command you?” she asked him softly.

His tongue caught on a sarcastic comment, and instead, he just made a divisive sound before saying crossly, “I’m already doing what you want.”

“No,” she said, brushing aside his comment like his sour attitude did not exist. “Would you like me to command you in the same way I’m commanding the tiger?”

He stared at her like she was insane. Then he swallowed. It sounded crazy, but the tiger had not attacked him. “Uh…”

“Please do not feel ashamed,” she soothed. “I will command myself as well, but if we go through that pass, we will meet too many people. They will kill the tiger. They will take me. They will kill you. We must travel unknown roads and walk the holy way. It will lead us to a place to rest. I will command you only insofar as we find a place to rest. Will you take my help?” she extended her hand.

He looked at her hand and moved to touch her.

Realizing he was about to let his skin touch hers, he abruptly yanked his fingers back. She was a harem woman. What had she done with her hands to please the King? He could not touch something so filthy. He withdrew. They were already outside the city. The tiger was already outside the city. He had helped her with a disguise and traveling clothes. If she knew which way to go already, why did he need to stay with her? He wasn’t trying to help her get her tiger to the jungle. He was trying to find his brother.

He sneered in her face. “If you already know the way, why do you need me to come along?”

She put her hand, the one he thought was so filthy, on her heart. “I cannot fight. I do not even look like I can fight. You could scare someone off with your sword without the need for violence. Please come with me. I will reward you.”

“I told you to keep your jewelry,” he said crossly before taking the way she suggested. It was a foolish way to walk. Everyone could see them… Except that the light was waning. The night was falling, and it was a dark night with only a tiger’s smile of a moon shining between the glints of a hundred predator eyes in the form of stars.

Samara and the tiger pushed ahead of Leonidas coming up the mountain. “I’ll be your guide,” she said, flicking the words at him like he was not in control of his destiny.

Fate had pulled him off course.