The streets and the people, I noticed, had changed, and I realized that I needed a disguise to blend in among the locals. He took me to a small shop in the back alley, and asked the shop owner, a middle-aged lady, for the traditional Moroccan dresses. The woman smiled at me, and helped me pick a dress. I went to the changing room and changed myself into a black silk Kaftan with a belt, and had golden embroidery on the neckline.

When I came out of the changing room, I saw that Dylan had done the same. He had used his headscarf to cover his face that added depth to his amber eyes. He resembled one of those Persian princes from Desert Romance.I picked a black face veil and asked him how it had looked.

He looked at me in a thought before reaching for my braid and removed the hair tie.

“You should wear your hair loose.” The veil had thankfully concealed the sudden blush on my cheeks, and I turned away from him, pretending to be interested in the jewelry.

After shopping, instead of going to the main market to look for the dagger, he took us through the alley between the shops to a gambling house. A Moorish man guarding the entrance door stopped us, and asked us for our identities.

“I’m Haroush, and this is lad—", Dylan paused before continuing, “This is lady Kandicha.”

I snapped my head in his direction. ‘Did he name us after the two infamous demons of Morocco?’ I glared at him but took a deep inhale to keep my composure.

“Haven’t seen her before here.” That Moorish eyed me, but I couldn’t let Dylan handle him in my place. I looked him dead in eye and said, 

“If not for the business with your master, I wouldn’t have bothered coming to this shabby place of yours.” I threatened him, and looked back at Dylan who seemed bemused. I motioned him to pay the guard some money, and he pulled out a pouch of silver coins, placing it right in the Moor’s hand.

“My lady isn’t good with her patience.” He told the man. The Moor weighed the pouch in his hand, and let us in. I walked past that man, and Dylan followed me behind.

“That was some good acting back then.” He was half- sarcastic with his compliment.

“Well, If I’m going to be stuck with you, I must start putting on some good performances.” I retorted back and scanned the hall. The place full of pirates, gamblers, and robbers and I wondered why of all places, we had to come to such a nefarious place.

“The Barbary Privateers and Seamen also come here to trade the antiques for a good load. The dagger we are looking for might as well be here.” He told me. It’s a black market.

 Surrounded by the looters and gamblers who’d put human lives at stake, demand ransom, or even worse, killing them for money didn’t seem like a good idea.

“We are getting out of here.” I turned to leave, but a hand on my arm stopped me. “It’s our only chance to find that dagger.” He pleaded.

“We don’t know how does it even look like!” I tired to reason with him, but he’s confident about finding it.

“We will find it.” He countered. “All you have to do is play along.” He looked at me as if understanding my worries and said, “I promise I will protect you.”

I closed my eyes to calm my nerves. I knew that he’d protect me. He had been doing that ever since we met on the train. In the end, I reluctantly agreed to his request.

There was a big gambling table in the middle of the room, and the men were placing all sorts of bets to get the money or the item they had wanted.

“We want to play as well.” I interrupted their game that earned us a moment of complete silence. “And who you might be?” The dice shooter asked us, and Dylan answered him for me.

“This is lady Kandicha; I’m her attendant.” “What are you looking for here?” The dice shooter asked again.

“A dagger.” I stated curtly hoping he wouldn’t ask anything further.

“So, which one of you is actually playing?” He asked, and Dylan stepped forward as a volunteer.

 “I guess you’re familiar with the rules here. If you win, I’ll let you cut one of my finger, but if you lose, you will pay with your hand.”

“That’s Barbaric!” I objected, but Dylan me it's okay

I stood aside and watched the game unfold before me. The rules were simple. The shooter would throw the dice, and Dylan had to guess the number either big or small. However, they decided on total three rounds with five rolls each, and the last throw would determine the fate of the player regardless of his previous wins. The odd number of rolls even made the gambling much complex, as none of the parties would end up in a draw.

The shooter put three dice In a cup, and shook them before placing the cup upside down on the table.

“Big or small?” He asked Dylan for the number who smirked back at him. “It’s a small number.”

 Dylan continued to gamble and several onlookers placed their bets on them. Then, the second round started. The shooter threw the dice on the table again and asked for the number which Dylan guessed wrong. As I watched his moves, I realized that the shooter had changed the position of dice with a slight of hand and that’s how he was winning the round. He had been tricking us from get go, making us guess the number first and then swiftly would change the dice position without anyone noticing it. He had planned to claim the game in the end, and wasn’t going to let us win since the beginning.

“He is cheating.” I whispered to Dylan whose expressions told me that he had already known about it.

“How about you let me throw the dice now?” Dylan spoke earning protests at the table. “You have been winning in a row. How would we know that you haven’t cheated.”

“I wouldn’t do such thing.” The man deflected the accusation glaring at us, but passed the dice to Dylan. The third round began and I grew tenser when Dylan threw the dice. The shooter won, but for the next three rolls he became confused as he kept losing. He realized that Dylan had used the same trick against him.

“You are messing up with the dice!” He accused in anger and was about to throw in a hand, when I intervened.

“I’ll do the last roll.” I offered and picked the dice from the table. The shooter could have chosen one of his men, and that would have been our liability. I looked at Dylan and he nodded in assurance. I shook the cup and threw the dice on the table, silently praying to the heavens to let us win.

“Big or small?” I asked. “Big”

I removed the cup, and faltered back in surprise upon seeing the number. It’s a small number. Shouts and hollers broke around the table when we lost the game and the shooter put his leg on the table relishing in his victory.

“Ready to lose your hand, young man?” He grinned and motioned his men. Two of his men grabbed Dylan by shoulder, and pushed him on the table. One of them grabbed his hand and placed it on the table.

“You can’t!” I protested, but the man gave me a glare. “Rules are rules, lady. You agreed to them yourself before the game.” He reminded me.

“What about money?” I offered him. “How much do you need to let him go?”

“You don’t call the shots here, woman. It’s Hachim’s turf.”

The man spat on the floor, and gave us an ugly look. I looked at Dylan in helplessness, and blamed myself for making him lose the game. I tried to help him, but ended up making things worse for him.

The shooter pulled out a knife from his belt, and raised it in the air to cut Dylan’s hand.

“What’s going on here?” An Algerian man came out of the back room, and asked his men about ruckus. The man had a tall intimidating stature, and sharp features with a beard on his face. It’s Hachim, the owner of the place.

“Lord, the man has lost the gambling, but this woman is refusing to pay according to the rule.” The dice shooter explained to him.

“All debts must be settled as promised.” The man looked at me with his hawk eyes, and I felt a chill ran down my spine.

 It’s then my eyes fell to his waist, and I saw a dagger at his side. It’s a curved one with a red gemstone on it.

‘This must be it!’

“Haroush” I shouted. “The dagger!” Dylan ‘s head snapped in his direction, and he grinned in satisfaction. He twisted himself free, and knocked the knife away from the shooter’s hand, kicking him square in his jaw. I immediately pulled out my hairpin from the sleeve, and stabbed two men in back to buy Dylan some time. He flipped over the table, and pivoted on the floor to kick the man in his shin before snatching the dagger away from him.

“Run!” He shouted.

“CATCH THEM!” The Algerian man barked at his men, As we ran out of the gambling house, Dylan fought to overthrow the Moorish guard at the door.

“Did you have to steal his dagger?” I complained dreading for our lives.

“Do you think he’d let us have it”?

“Good, now they are on our tail to catch us, and I’d rather keep my head intact.”

I cursed my fate as we ran through the streets. As if being chased by those ghouls and blood-drainers wasn’t enough already, the universe decided to let pirates come after me as well.

We ran as fast we could, knocking over some fruit carts in our way and got yelled at by the vendors, but Hachim’s men caught on us faster and cast the rope net to capture us. I fell on the ground struggling to get free, and the last thing I remembered was getting knocked out by them.

When I came to, I found my hands and legs tied with a rope. I checked my surroundings and realized that they had brought us to desert along with other people. I immediately thought of Dylan and looked for him. He was tied in a corner all beaten up and still unconscious. There were two guards near a tent, but both had their backs to me. I took the opportunity and rolled over on the ground to get to Dylan and saw his bruised face with a split lip.

“Hey, wake up.” I called him making sure that guards wouldn’t hear me. “Dylan?” There’s still no response from him. Then, I did the only thing that could actually wake up him. I bit down on his hand, and the poor man jolted up awake. I hushed him before he could even shout and draw the attention of those guards towards us.

“What are you—"

“Keep it down!” I scolded him. “And you wouldn’t wake up otherwise, so…” I trailer off grinning, and the man rolled his eyes at me. “I am well-aware of your passive aggressive antics. So, what’s the situation?”

“We are brought to desert with the other people.” I told him . “There are three women, a man, a young boy and a girl, all tied down near the tents.”

“We are in Western Sahara desert.” He observed.

“Is he going to kill us?” I asked Dylan, but he shook his head. “He could have killed us back in the streets. He didn’t have to bring us all the way here for that.” He answered me, and it only meant one thing.

“Human smuggling across the border?” The realization horrified me. I fretted over the fate of other women and mine as well. We were brought to the desert either to be sold, or to entertain the men of desert.

“We need to be cautious before taking any action.” Dylan suggested scanning the area, and inquired me about the guards near the tents.

“Five of them, two here, three on the other side. The Algerian man, haven’t seem him.”

 I pushed myself up in a sitting position, and turned to him. “Where’s the dagger?” I asked him.

“It’s with him.” He said.

“You stole the dagger from him only to lose it to him again?” I was completely stunned. Him losing the dagger meant I couldn’t go back either.

“We stole from him. Why would he let me have it?”

“What do you need the dagger for?” There’s something more than that met the eye, and I was no fool. It was no simple dagger.

“There’s something in the desert that needs to be taken care of.” Dylan’s eyes became distant, and his expressions cold as if he had been asked about something hideous.

“What is it?” I questioned hoping he’d tell me about it but he brushed it off. “Believe me, you don’t want to learn about it.”

I didn’t press any further and asked him no more. In his world, the law and nature of the things were different, an an ordinary human like me would not naturally understand those. I had decided that if he didn’t say anything, I wouldn’t inquire about them either. Moreover, he was not going to answer me about them in the first place, and would simply let them rest to my own thoughts.

One of the guards, turned to look at our direction, and I immediately closed my eyes, pretending to be unconscious. He marched straight towards us, and bent to see Dylan still passed out.

“Hey!” He barked at his mate. “Were these two tied together?”

“I don’t know, man. It must be Esam.” The other answered him.

 I held my breath, as he towered above us, and gave my leg a light kick to check if I was actually out. He frowned at us before going back to his guarding post. Dylan and I pretended to be unconscious for a while and waited for Hachim to come to us himself. He finally stepped out of his tent, dressed in black robes and wearing a head turban, and came to us with his two men. He bent down to our level, and first looked at Dylan.

“Wake him up, and if he doesn’t, just kill him.” He told his men. My heart thudded in my chest, when his attention turned towards me and even with my closed eyes, I could feel his piercing gaze on me. He asked another man to bring him a bowl of water, and threw it on my face. My eyes shot open in shock, and I sat up coughing and scowled at him.

“Are you awake now?” He asked in his cold voice. I looked at Dylan who was wincing in pain after being kicked in ribs.

“I admire your courage for stealing from me, but you stole from Hachim and I, Hachim , settle all the scores and debts.” The man threatened Dylan who refused to give into his threats.

“You could’ve killed me back there.” Dylan told him. “Why did you bring us here?” He seethed through his teeth and glared at Hachim who chuckled at him.

“There’s something more interesting for you here than death,” He tapped Dylan’s cheek with his dagger and got up. “Besides, I like playing with my bait before catching the dragon.”

Hachim turned to his men and said, “Put these two with the others and give them all something to eat.” Then, his voice became dangerously low when he said,” I don’t want any of them to die before tomorrow ‘s hunt.”

“W-What does he mean.” I asked Dylan after hearing Hachim’s words. “Where is he taking us?”

“He’s going to use us as a bait to catch something in the desert.” Dylan answered, but two men separated us.

“Stop talking !” They got us up on our feet, and dragged us back to the tents with the other hostages. I sat up with other women, but didn’t engage in a talk with them.

Dylan had led me to that gambling house to find the dagger, and he needed it to deal with something. Hachim had also brought hostages to the desert as a bait to catch some thing. If I weren’t wrong, that dagger was crucial in catching that thing, but what was it? The interaction between them showed that it wasn’t their first meeting. Dylan might have been here before, but this time he had come for Hachim.

I looked over at Dylan and realized that I could trust no one; not even him, but myself in the desert.