Odi had had to admit, that had he been the princess, the timing of Senu and her brothers’ sudden arrival, seemingly to obstruct their quick escape, coupled with the encroaching threat posed by the royal soldiers, would have combined to produce a disquieting desperation. In all the time he had known her, from the very first day he had unwittingly set eyes on the sand-scuffed girl whose defiance radiated from her like heat haze, to the worst scrapes they had gotten into together, Odi had never known Nanu to display fear. Even faced with the prospect of betrayal, the heir apparent to the Aegyptian throne did not falter, eschewing her elevated position to take her place on her feet next to him. Abrax, as trained as he was, seemed to be more put off by the sudden shift in their situational dynamics,  having been girding himself to dart into motion with a rider on his back and now, as they ate up the yards smoothly, falling in line behind the 3 clandestine operators,  a tightness that had been slowly winding around him since they entered the oasis town was slowly, but surely, beginning to unwind. Years of statuesque vigilance as a royal guard must have somehow erased the sibilant ease with which he was once wont to approach this uncertain kinetic lifestyle. It reminded him of the life he had left behind, the uncertain, dangerous life of the streets which he had traded for protection, loyalty, and, he had to admit it, boredom.<br/><br/>Her words still ringing in his ears as she chastised him in the half playful, half sobering manner that only Nanu seemed capable of perfecting, Odi  felt a slither of, what? Pleasure? Fear? Whatever it was, he knew the cause, her closeness, her rider’s perfect posture pushing back slightly against his honed chest and the subtle, missable jounce of her breasts if he chanced to take his eyes away from the backs of their new confederates. The truth was, Abrax, like the red-blooded stallion he was, had always been more responsive to her touch, and as such, affording her the manipulation of the reins, and by extension, of the horse, had been a calculated move on his part, both to expedite their escape and to keep her safe. “I would ensure anything, even your wrath would be infinitely preferable to your silence in death, Princess,’ he had responded, flashing his childhood friend a smile that she knew very well. “If the Gods see fit to endow me with a life beyond this I would endure your fury till you join me on the sacred shore beyond and turn my respite into a bed of scorpions.” She had laughed at that, oh how he loved the sound of her joy. Even in such a tense moment as the one they had left behind moments before, it would always be worth any price just to see the Princess smile. “Our foes will find that I do not die easily,” he had said, a promise contained in his words, “but if any harm came to you, not even Anubis will keep them safe from me.”<br/><br/>The rebels highway, he had heard those words mentioned, but never by those of any standing within high society. “It is a path only those who have traveled it know,” he replied, leaning close so that the sand-scored air did not steal his words to prevent her from hearing him. “It is, I believe, a route used by the followers of the Fennec Prince,” He knew she knew that name, how could she not, when the self-styled desert royal had long proven a thorn in her royal father’s side. Were he her, Odi knew for certain that that news would not have sat well with him, but such was their plight that they could ill-afford and disagreements, what with the pharaoh’s hunters to close on their tail. If there was one thing that would make her amenable to such an arrangement as they found themselves involved with, it was that he trusted Senu and her brothers, and the fact that they, for whatever reason, had opted to unite their escape with the dealings of a notorious outlaw. “If my guess is right, I think we are headed to the Cave of Whispers,” he added, lips almost touching her right ear, as he sought to communicate his protective assurance by tightening his grasp around her waist. “I dislike this plan as much as you do, but we have little choice.” It had been their choice to trust in their unlikely allies, or rather it had been his, and the Princess, trusting him as she always had, had not complained other than to voice natural doubts. “What we know of this man we have heard from his foes, so how do we know they speak true?”<br/><br/>Odi knew that those words would give Nanu pause.  They carried within them the weight of history. Recounting to each other the experiences of their day, he from his grueling martial training and she from what she had learned from her book-toting tutors, Nanu had wanted his interpretation on something her philosophy tutor had told her that day. Odi had laughed, never before had he seen the young princess so nonplussed by any lessons she had yet related. Her admiration for the white-bearded Master Khwarizmi had long been apparent, and indeed, Odi had once jokingly commented that if she paid as much attention to her dusty history tutor as she did to the soft-spoken Arabian sufi, she would be a walking repository of pharaonic history, both old and new kingdoms.  From the glance she gave him, the former captain of the royal guard knew that she was thinking as he was; Never really fermenting any sustained revolt, the mysterious figure known to his followers and enemies as the Fennec Prince had plagued the caravan route for years. From the way he leader of the caravan guards told it, his sand cloth wearing brigands would appear as if out of nowhere “birthed by the desert herself” and dispossess delivery caravans from the verdant Nile delta to the North of much of their goods, but never harming the merchants or their animals. Only Captain Talwar’s men ever tasted the sharp edge of the Prince’s disdain.<br/><br/>Finally free of the winding close-fitting back alleys, Abrax let out a neigh of prideful defiance as the 4 riders sped out onto the dunes that spread out before them like a dusty ocean. Tracking them now along the shifting paths of the trackless expanse would be nigh impossible now, and soon their pursuers would have little recourse but to give up and return to the city.