Desert Heat

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: ESCAPE

King Aziz had suspended the assembly as the guards went in search of Lily, and he had even placed a thirty-thousand-dollar reward on her head. The palace was in turmoil, the king was upset, and finding his wife was the only thing on his mind.

King Aziz locked himself within his chambers for two hours; he ordered his guards to only disturb him when his wife was found and brought to the palace. King Aziz hated that his people doubted him, and from outside looking in, it seemed as though he had conspired with his wife to help her escape.

"I will find you, Lily, if that is the last thing that I do." King Aziz spoke to himself in the confines of his chamber.

**

"Oh! My son, I did not know that you were here." The queen told her son, Prince Amaan. Her stepson, the King, had disassembled the hearing, and upon entering her room, she was shocked to see her son in her chambers.

Amaan stood by her window, and he was looking into her eyes as if he were studying his mother, and this did not sit well with the queen.

''Greetings, mother, you look somewhat startled. Are you perhaps hiding something?" Prince Amaan asked his mother, and the queen played it cool.

''No, I am not hiding anything; I am just amazed by how my stepson thinks," the queen responded, the entire time not looking into her son's eyes.

"I am sure that you are so concerned," Prince Amaan replied sarcastically. His mother had always been a cunning woman; not one part of him trusted anything she said, and he knew that she was hiding something.

"Of course I am concerned; my stepson's wife is missing, and no one seems to know where she is." The queen responded to her son, and worry clouded her tone.

''Oh, please, mother, spare me the lies!" Prince Amaan raised his voice at his mother, and his outburst shocked the queen.

''Amaan, my son, I think you are forgetting who you are talking to, and I would hate to refresh your memory," the Queen warned Amaan, but he did not seem too bothered by her threat.

''Mother, I know that you are behind this," Prince Amaan accused the queen, but this only confused the queen further.

"What are you talking about?" The queen asked her son, who was still fuming mad at her.

"I am talking about you helping Lily escape from her cell last night! Mother, I know everything," Prince Amaan informed his mother, and her immediate reaction was pure evidence that she was guilty.

''Well, I am shocked that you figured that out, and yes, I did help her escape." The queen confessed to her son, and she continued walking around her chambers as though nothing had happened at all.

''Mother, do you realize the gravity of what you just did?" Amaan asked his mother, and she turned to look at him as though it did not bother her.

"I simply helped a young woman escape, and let me remind you that Lily is family," the Queen scolded her son, and this did not sit well with Prince Amaan. His mother's constant support for his stepbrother, the king, only irritated him more.

''Mother, the way you love Aziz, one would think that he is your biological son and I am your stepson."

"I love you both the same," The queen told Amaan, but he was too angry to listen to his mother.

''Unfortunately, I do not see it like that; you love Aziz so much that I wonder what would happen if he found out that you helped his wife escape." The queen's eyes widened at her son's words.

"I hope you are not planning to tell the King what I have done?" The queen asked her son, and he simply flashed a smile at her.

"As much as I would want to tell him the truth, I can't," Prince Amaan confessed.