Namid turned back to go, when she remembered something Rakab had said just a few minutes before: "Dance on, my violent fire, let me not steal your beauty as you have my heart…"
Words of passion he spoke and words of a love cruelly denied. Namid knew her duties were to the prince, but an even greater duty was that to her heart. The young she-wolf looked up and gazed up at the sky, tears pricking in her eyes.
Heart pounding, breathing even, I danced
Sweet seduction, sweet glory
For that, and more
I danced
Oh, to you, Great Mother Ylva
I now lift my weary head
My eyes turn to the sky
And I see
See more I've dreamt, all I've wanted
But is he the one, I ask
Who will win my heart?
What must I follow?
How can I win this raging battle?
When I am the bargained
How may I breathe again?
When I am suffocating in love
Namid felt her throat close up with emotion as she collapsed to her knees, tears falling freely to the dirt. How could she escape this raging battle between her duty and love? The wolves, her people, were depending on her to form this alliance and yet she was falling in love with someone who had been her friend ever since she was three.
She felt caged and broken. Tamed, almost. The spirit of the wolf, the childhood innocence and the freedom that was within her, was dying. "I am not a child anymore!" she whispered, bitterly, "I cannot keep living in the past…"
To be yours, bold thief, I dream
Yet to be so close and yet so far away
I wish, just wish, that I could be selfish
Throw myself in your embrace and never let go
Rose petals fall to the ground
Like the tears I shed tonight
I want to know what you're thinking
Please, tell me you love me like I do you
Namid scoffed, "What's the truth of it?" "Has my heart betrayed me, led me down the wrong path?"
A soft voice brought her from her mutterings; "You may confront him now, my cub, while he is alone."
"Great Mother!" Namid gasped, as she looked up sharply. A woman with ebony black hair and gray-blue eyes studied her.
She heard a raven's harsh caw and felt the rush of the wind as it swooped and perched on the woman's shoulder, "Go to him, star-dancer…go and let him know…" the woman smiled tenderly at her kin and slowly she turned her head to face Rakab's tent and turned back to Namid, "He waits…"
Candlelight beckons me to your tent door
Slowly I peek through and notice your face
Illuminated by the little flames, by the scant moonlight
You are deep in thought, and I wonder if you are thinking
Of you and I
Rakab sat at a small desk massaging his temples, and Namid stepped tentatively inside but the thief never noticed. Namid walked over to him and placed gentle hands on his shoulders, "You're tense." She whispered, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing…just…" he turned to her and she stepped back as he stood, "Does this change anything for us, Namid?" his voice was hoarse as if he had been upset earlier.
"No."
"Will you really…" He cleared his throat, "Love him as you do me?"
It wasn't a question she could answer, "I—I don't know, Rak. It depends…"
"On what?" Rakab's voice had dropped, and his eyes darkened.
"If—if he orders to have you executed or…put on trial…Oh gods, Rak…I could never let that happen!" Namid buried her head in her hands and sobbed and Rakab wrapped her arms around her, not allowing her to leave and comforting her. "I love you, Namid, and for you I'd risk myself like that, if need be."
He said that with such conviction that made Namid only sob harder, she shook her head; "You don't know what it's like to be chained like this to someone..."
"I do." Rakab's voice was deep and his touch warm as he cupped her cheek and gazed into her eyes, his own distant in pain, "I've felt pain far beyond yours…I've loved and dreamt of someone but when I saw them at last, they were already betrothed." He kissed her lips slow and soft, his eyes were sparkling with unshed tears and his voice was thick with emotion when he spoke, "I've lost you, darling. To him."
Namid shook her head, "No. Not completely…" She then kissed him, passionately, wrapping her arms around his neck as he broke it suddenly, "You're duties, Namid..."
She blew out the candle and kissed his cheek, "They do not matter yet…tonight it's only you and I…"
Rakab gathered his friend in his arms, spun her around and kissed her, not caring that she was still in her dancing attire or that a raven with blue eyes had just flown off into the night, to fade on the breeze.
To be yours tonight, bold thief, I am
I am so close now to you
I am willing to be selfish tonight; time doesn't matter now
I'll throw myself in your embrace and never let you go…