*
Anas shuffled his feet along behind the coach, his hands tied to the rear by a short rope. His legs were sore and his shoulder was still bleeding, but no one seemed to care. Behind him, two guards in torn clothes walked with their fingers wrapped tightly on the hilts of their blades. The streets were eerily quiet as the coach trudged along, stumbling every few seconds on a rock along the pathway.
He couldn't see the inside of the coach where Fareed and Noor were sitting together, but he could clearly hear what they were saying.
"Lukman returns in a few days," Fareed was saying to her. "When he does, we shall leave at once."
"Where are we going to?" Noor asked.
"To find the missing piece," he replied. "Something just struck in my head, and I believe I know where it is."
"Where
