Wanderlove (34 page)

I passed through the doorway without looking back. As soon as the outside air hit me, I breathed a long sigh of relief.
I did it!
It was almost impossible to believe.

Now that I was out of the castle, however, I had no time to waste. I immediately picked up my pace because every moment was precious. I needed to get as far away from here as I could while I had the chance.

I worked my way into the camp, weaving my way through the crowds. There were people everywhere. The farther I immersed myself into the camp, the harder it was to get through. My anxiety began to increase as I pushed my way forward. And it didn’t help that I was being noticed everywhere I went in Lina’s gaudy dress.

There were some juvenile boys who blew whistles as I hurried by. One of them even grabbed my arm in order to gain my attention, but I snatched it away and rushed to move on.

There was a fire breather to my left, with a large audience surrounding him. He caught my attention just as he blew a rippling wave of flames into the audience. He wanted to frighten everyone without doing any real harm. It had the startling affect he’d intended and everyone stepped back before cheering him on. Distracted by the fire breather’s performance, I accidentally ran directly into someone as they were stepping backwards.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!”

I looked up, seeing I had run into an immensely large woman who was wearing too much makeup and a furious expression. Although once she got a good look at me, her anger rapidly disappeared.

“Oh, it’s you!” she said. “We have been looking for you everywhere. It’s Lina, right?”

I cleared my throat. “Yep. My name is Lina.” I tried my best to sound very confident about that.

“Oh, good. Come with me.” The woman motioned for me to follow her.

Confused, I trailed along after her. It was really aggravating, especially in the middle of my getaway attempt. But I figured it would seem suspicious if I chose not to follow her, especially if there was somewhere Lina was supposed to be right now.

I tried to lose the woman a few times by keeping a slower pace, but she kept glancing behind her, hurrying me along. The woman was persistent, determined to get me (well, Lina) to wherever we were headed.

Eventually, she led me to a large wooden platform. I followed her up a set of steps that ran along the backside of it, which ventured into the makeshift building. She opened the door and ushered me inside.

“Quickly,” she said to me for the tenth time since we’d been walking. She was proving to be
very
annoying.

“I’m coming,” I muttered.

As soon as we were inside, we were bombarded with people.

“Thank heavens, you’ve found her!” The man who announced this rushed to my side.

“Where have you been?” he asked. Before I had the chance to make up an excuse, he abruptly cut me off. “It doesn’t matter. There’s no time. Here, take these.” He stuffed a pair of cymbals into my palms.

“What are these for?” I asked dumbly.

“Haha,” he laughed, displaying his set of gold teeth. “You’re cute.”

A girl to my left began powdering my cheeks, while another one straightened my sash. Someone else began to fasten bangles to my ankles and wrists.

“What is going on here?” I asked the room of people, but no one was paying any attention to what I was saying. They all seemed to be rushing about in a scurried frenzy.

“Okay!” the man with the gold teeth shouted. He swung me around by my shoulders to face him, giving me a once-over. He brought his fingers to his mouth and kissed them in the same manner as an Italian chef. “Voila! You look absolutely stunning!”

He turned me away from him and pushed me towards what I thought was a wall, until I noticed the gleam of light moving from underneath. It was a set of curtains. . .

It suddenly dawned on me what was happening.

“Oh no, you’ve got the wrong girl for this!” I exclaimed.

I decided then and there that I preferred to be caught and punished. I’d gladly spend my whole freaking life here if that was what it took, rather than to go out on stage in front of people.

The man behind me laughed again. “She’s funny,” he mentioned to whoever was standing next to him. Then, he pushed me hard into the curtains. “You’re on, draga! Knock ‘em dead!”

The stage lights immediately lit upon me while I stared motionlessly into the crowd of onlookers. “Oh, God,” I groaned miserably. “This can’t be happening.”

Someone with a microphone announced, “Here she is, Miss Lina Drynski, famed belly dancer extraordinaire!”

How was this possible? Lina would have seen it coming…it suddenly occurred to me that while she was wishing me luck, she had also said to “break a leg.” What a miserable friend! She had known and hadn’t warned me. Note to self: Strangle Lina to death.

The crowd cheered as some music started blaring from nearby speakers. I turned behind me and caught a glimpse of the man with the gold teeth peeking through the curtains. He was waving frantically, motioning me to begin the dance.

“I don’t know which one I’m performing!” I yelled to him.

“The
Ghawazee
!” he yelled back.

As soon as he named the style, the steps to the dance filled my mind.
This will be okay
, I thought, trying to keep myself calm. I’d practiced the Ghawazee style numerous times with Lina, probably more than any other kind of dance.
I can do this
, I reassured myself. I couldn’t panic. The dance called for sensuality and slowly controlled movements. The appearance of panic would ruin the fluidity I needed to create.

I took one deep breath and closed my eyes.
Here goes nothing
, I thought. I lifted my hands in the air, pulling my right hip upwards, holding it there and waiting for the next beat.

As soon as it resounded, I dropped my hip, beginning the dance. I heard the roar of the crowd’s cheer again, but I didn’t open my eyes just yet. I pretended like they weren’t there. I acted like it was only me and Lina, practicing in some quiet studio.

As I lifted my hip up and down with the beat, I slowly turned my arm, keeping my thumb and index finger held together for an added touch of beauty, keeping the cymbals closed between them. I could feel my muscles scream because I hadn’t performed the dance in so long; the movement required perfect precision. Though it was difficult, it had to appear seamless, as if my arms were mere ribbons, fluttering softly and slowly in the breeze. I glanced to my left, keeping my eyes halfway closed and peering out from beneath my lashes.

I kept my face expressionless, but I was ridiculously happy because I’d executed the movement perfectly. I figured if I could still pull off the arm movements, I could probably get through the rest of the dance, too.

Since the beat was still slow and tribal-like, I placed my arms over my head and lifted my chest. I dropped it suddenly to my right side, and then downwards, and then to the left, and finally upwards. A perfect diamond. Then I moved faster, until I was isolating my rib cage and creating a rapid chest circle.

I heard the shrill cry of the
zaghareet
as the music picked up. I dropped my hip into a shimmy and began to twirl about the stage. The crowd continued to cheer and so I finally let myself open my eyes. As I realized that I was actually pulling this off, I smiled. My small, gleeful smile stayed plastered to my face as I continued the rest of the dance.

Bizarrely, while I danced, several images popped into my mind of other dances I’d performed during my past lives. I guess Dakota was right, after all; I had done this before. Confidence filled me as I remembered all my old performances. I really wished I would have felt the same confidence ten minutes ago, though I supposed it was better late than never.

I took a bow as the dance came to an end, breathing heavily. As I looked out into the cheering crowd, I noticed the strangest thing. It almost looked like Gabe was there. I thought I saw the familiar lines of his face, but the figure turned and became lost in the crowd.

I shook the spooky feeling away, sincerely hoping my constant longing to see Gabe hadn’t caused me to start hallucinating.

As soon as I walked backstage, everyone swarmed over me again. The man with the gold teeth stood on his toes to reach my forehead. There, he planted a kiss. “You were wonderful, draga! Simply spectacular!”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Would you like to encore the audience with a tribal fusion dance?”

I grimaced. “Ugh, I’d love to, but I gotta run. Sorry!”

Dozens of people backstage approached me as I made my way towards the exit, but I ignored them all as I shouted more apologies. Eventually, I found my way outside the door and quickly retreated. I hurried down the steps, realizing how late it had become. I bet my father suspected our plan had failed. I hoped he would still be waiting for me by the pond.

“Lola, stop!”

Horrified at hearing my own name called out, I turned around to see who spotted me. I was startled as I did; however, and I actually jumped backwards.

Both Cam and Gabe were running to catch up with me. They had come from around the corner of the stage, slowing to a stop when they reached me.

“What are you guys doing here?” I murmured the question. “And how did you recognize me?”

I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks on me. I wondered if this was all an imaginary attempt to sabotage myself in some hugely insane way.

“Gabe knew it was you as soon as he saw you.” Cam smiled brilliantly. “And we came to rescue you. This is the second time, I might add. Just so you know, you’ve met your quota on rescues for the year.”

I wasn’t paying much attention to Cam because I couldn’t take my eyes off of Gabe.

He was scowling at me. I decided I couldn’t possibly be imagining this. If this was my own personal fantasy, Gabe would take me in his arms and kiss me. Or something along those lines, anyway. But it certainly wouldn’t involve scowling.

Eventually, I managed to pull my eyes away from Gabe and back to Cam.

“Well, that’s very nice of you both. But as you can see, I was in the middle of rescuing myself.”

I didn’t even have the full sentence out of my mouth before I felt a hand snake across my upper arm. I looked up to see a guard behind me. He jerked me towards him.

“Over here,” he shouted. “I’ve found her.”

“How?” I asked.

The guard grinned eerily. He pointed to my forehead. “We read your mind.”

Before I knew what was happening, Gabe managed to slam his fist into the guard’s stomach, causing the man to double over in pain.

“Run, Lo!” Cam shouted, motioning me to follow him. Without thinking twice, I picked up my skirt and started running as fast as I could, trying to keep up with Cam.

Someone shouted, “
She went that way!
” from behind me, so I ran even faster.

But running through the crowd had its issues. There were too many damned people in the way. Cam reached back for my hand, and as soon as he grabbed it, he yanked me forward. He tugged me along with him, dodging people left and right. Soon we came close to the river, and I knew where Cam’s thoughts were headed.

“We’re not swimming for it, are we?” I shouted. “I’m covered with coins and sequins-- I’ll sink straight to the bottom!”

“Try to jump to cover as much distance as you can,” Cam yelled over his shoulder.

“Great plan,” I shouted back sarcastically.

As we neared the edge, we picked up speed and I lifted my skirt higher. “Don’t jump till I say,” Cam told me through heavy breaths.

We were almost at the edge of the bank when Cam finally shouted, “Now!” Jumping at the same time, we crashed into the icy water. The strong currents pushed me downstream and I fought to get my bearings. As soon as I felt the shallow ground beneath me, I pushed up hard, gasping for breath as I came through the trough.

“Lo, grab my hand!” Cam called to me.

I couldn’t see him, blinded by the water, though I reached out towards the sound of his voice. I felt him seize my wrist and pull me along to the bank with him. I used my other arm to help him swim against the current. But after running for so long, I was exhausted and didn’t have much strength left.

Cam pushed me to the shore first. I clutched for the ground, clawing at the dirt to pull myself up. It was difficult because I was weighed down from my soaking wet costume. As soon as I was completely out of the water, I turned around to help Cam, but he was already halfway out. I merely helped him pull himself the rest of the way.

We both took a moment to catch our breaths and I dimly noticed my wig floating downstream. The rushing water tossed it violently against the rocks until the auburn strands sank to their demise. I wondered how close I’d come to meeting the same fate.

Cam cut the break shorter than I would have liked. “Come on,” he told me. “There’s no time. They can read our every move.”

He helped me to my feet and then we began to jog again. My muscles screamed in protest.

“If we can just make it to the clearing ahead, there’s an SUV parked there.”

“Okay,” I breathed and I pushed myself to move faster.

We both noticed the guards coming at us from the left. And as soon as we turned to the right, we saw they were coming at us from that angle, also.

Cam and I both paused in our tracks. We didn’t have anywhere to run.

“You are ordered to stay where you are!” one of them yelled.

“Oh, hell,” Cam muttered beneath his breath. “Like there’s anywhere we could go if we wanted to.”

Within moments, we were swarmed by guards. Thinking fast, I removed the small pistol from the inside of my dress, thankful to find it still intact. I pulled Cam towards me and held the gun to his head.

“This man is my prisoner! I will shoot him if I have to-so back off right now!”

“Are you crazy?” Cam whispered furiously.

“
Just go with it
,” I whispered back.

One of the guards laughed loudly. He moved, standing directly in front of us. “Do you want me to save you the trouble, little girl?” he asked me derisively. “Because I’ll gladly shoot him for you. His life is worth less than nothing in comparison to your capture.”