"Is it dangerous?" she probed.

"Nay, and ask me no more," Zuleika replied. "Do you think I am a fool to risk my own safety, and that of Dariyabar?"

Rafa nodded. "I worry," was all she said.

"Do not, old woman," came the command, and the princess turned back to her meal with enthusiasm.

"Because you tell me," Rafa said with a wry smile.

"Because I tell you," Zuleika nodded.

Rafa chortled. "I will see that your bath is prepared," she told her mistress.

And when the princess had finished her meal, and bathed, she lay down to sleep. She would awaken at the proper hour, she knew. And when she opened her eyes again and arose, she looked at the water clock and saw it was the midnight hour. With a smile she slipped a pair of kid slippers upon her feet. Rafa lay sleeping soundly on a mat at the foot of her bed. A soft smile touched Zuleika's face. She loved Rafa as she would have loved her mother had the sultana Jamila lived. Taking up a dark cloak from a cedar chest, the princess slipped from her apartments.

Outside her doors the guards slumbered, leaning upon their lances. Everyone she passed within the palace slept. She walked through a small door in the tightly shut palace gates. The city was silent. There was not even the barking of dogs, or the howling of felines at the bright full moon. Zuleika moved swiftly through the quiet streets, now coming to the closed and barred city gates. Again she made her way through a small door within the barrier, stepping out into the countryside beyond. There, but a quarter of a mile ahead of her, lay the camp of their enemy. Zuleika walked more swiftly now, and reaching the throng of tents she stopped momentarily to get her bearings.

Amir Khan's tent would be in the center of the encampment, the genie had said. Then as if a puzzle had revealed itself, Zuleika saw the proper path to take. She moved forward, and made her way to the magnificent pavilion with its multicolored pendants now at rest in the still night air. As everywhere else, the guards were asleep before their campfires. Zuleika moved past the entrance of Amir Khan's tent, saying as she did so, "Good evening, my lord."