TWENTY-TWO
"You know what he's after, don't you?" Asad asked in a low voice as he helped Anahita unsaddle the camels.
"Who? Haidar? Of course. He wants the impossible – to turn back time," Anahita said. "To have his wife back."
"Not Haidar. The frog. The one who rides with you, and fills your ears with tales of old," Asad said.
"Philemon wants to break the curse, and go home to Tasnim." After listening to him for so many days in the desert, she knew that for a certainty, for all his tales were of Tasnim, the magical city where a woman could be more than property.
"He wants you to do it."
Anahita stared. "You're wrong. He's never asked for any such thing. He only wants me to take him to where he can find the enchantress who cursed him so she removes the curse."
"Just because he has
