SIXTEEN
"Philemon, I have a proposition for you," the girl called. What had her name been? Oh, that's right – Anahita. No title, no family name, just...Anahita. He should remember that, in case he ever caught himself thinking about her bathing n***d in his oasis again. It had been a long time since he'd seen a woman, let alone a n***d one, and her form was pleasing enough to catch the eye of a man starved for female company.
Not her face, though. Now he'd seen it up close, he thought her plainer than ever. Her nose was crooked, as though it had been broken. Perhaps barbarian girls fought like boys did. And those strange eyes...like one of the crusaders from the north. She was probably the spawn of some crusader and a girl he stole from her family. That she lived meant her mother had liv
