Free THE THIEF OF KALIMAR (Graham Diamond's Arabian Nights Adventures) by Graham Diamond

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    Her eyes flashed with burning rage. Right there and then she would have struck him, plunged the bejeweled blade into his heart. But her own heart was too gentle, and she saw in Vlashi now only the pathetic man that he was. His blood on her hands would prove nothing, settle nothing. Leaving him to live with his conscience was a far greater punishment.
    Her mind was swimming deliriously. Matters had become even worse than she had realized. For now there was a double threat against the thief; not only were the inquisitors searching for him for a crime he did not commit, but this strange and mysterious beggar as well. A man cunning enough to walk brazenly among the shadows and not be seen, crazed in his desire to reclaim his blade, and willing to pay any price to ensure he got it back. And Ramagar was aware of none of it.
    Leaving the pickpocket to bemoan his fate, she spun and raced for the closest byway. The night wind rushed by her, cold against her sweat-drenched clothes. Mariana ran as fast as she could, panting, taking breath only in short, quick spurts, and far too fearful to pause for even a second lest in that brief moment her lover might be found.
    The lanterns of the wharves shone dim and yellow in the evening pall. The moon, crescent and low, had turned hazy behind a thin film of fog that rolled slowly across the water. She could dimly hear laughter from the distant Street of Thieves, where the night crowd of visitors and merrymakers would be at its height.
    A ship’s horn sounded lonely and forlorn in the night. The sound echoed in her ears, mingled with the subdued shouts of the captain cajoling his crew as they slipped closer into berth. From across the estuary a thousand lights glittered from the palace. It rose high at the top of the largest hill, overlooking the sprawl of Kalimar, and she could make out the tiny forms of sentries patrolling the long walls. Curved swords dangled from their sides and the colorful plumes in their helmets rustled in the breeze.
    She skirted the rows of warehouses still in use, avoiding the watchful eyes of guards marching back and forth along the piers and docks. Across the footbridge she dashed, coming at last to the old port. Filled with decayed and weatherbeaten wooden structures, it had been unused since the time of the last fires which had almost destroyed half of the city.
    Pulling her cloak more tightly about her, she wandered down the broadest of the deserted streets and kept a careful lookout for signs of being followed. Often Ramagar had spoken of his hiding places in these warehouses. Places shown to him by his tutor and friend, the Jackal. A wanted man’s dream; a virtual labyrinth of dark cellars and lofts so multiple and so complex that a man using all his wiles might be able to hide for a lifetime without ever being found out. And it was here, Mariana knew, that Ramagar would have come if he had fled the Jandari. At least that was her prayer, for after here there would be no other place for her to turn.
    Crisscrossing back and forth to avoid unwanted eyes, she at last reached the long stone wall that surrounded the massive array of storehouses known as the old compound. The familiar black doorway loomed ahead and she nervously bit her lip as she entered.
    The passageway was totally black; not the slimmest beam of starlight passed between the cracks in the rotting beams. Her shoes disturbed a thin layer of dust as she walked cautiously in the center, careful to keep away from the walls, where water rats and mice nestled in clusters among the holes in the corners. Somewhere beyond this passage Ramagar might be found. Somewhere high in the highest loft, above the alley and courtyard.
    Silently she ventured, her hand held out before her, feeling her way in the dank, dismal gloom. The only sound was that of her own breath. And then, suddenly, she could see glimpses of sky ahead. She walked faster now, until at last she was out in the open and at the edge of