Rise of the Red Harbinger by Khalid Uddin Read Free Book Online

Yasaman! And she’s kissing me! A second hand reached around him and pulled his body closer. After what seemed like hours, Bo’az forced himself to pull away, finally realizing that he’d been kissing back, and stared at her. She’s so beautiful.
    A hint of horror tinged her countenance. “Oh my goodness, I’m sorry Bo, I thought you were Tasz!”
    What? No, that’s not fair. “I am Tasz!” Wait, what am I saying?
    “Bo’az, I can tell the difference between the two of you. It isn’t difficult, considering there’s no black scar running down your face.”
    No. If she doesn’t want Bo’az, then I can be Baltaszar. Why is he the only one who gets to be happy? “No. No, really. The scar has been gone for weeks. I don’t know how, but it went away.” He’s not coming back. He’ll never see her again anyway.
    She sat on the bed with a sigh. “How? How does a scar like that just disappear? You’ve had the thing for as long as I’ve known you. Something like that doesn’t just disappear! Bo, if this is some stupid trick, please stop now. We don’t have the time for it, and I’m too tired to argue.”
    “Trust me, Yas. It’s me, Baltaszar. Really. I left Bo back in the forest. He was too afraid of being caught to come back here.” Work. Please work. “I don’t know why or how the scar is gone, but over the past few weeks, it just faded away.”
    “Fine. But if you’re lying, I’ll make sure that there’s no way to confuse the two of you ever again.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean I’ll kill you.”
    “Oh. Um, sure.” Oh God, what’ve I done?
    “And where have you and Bo’az been? No one has seen you two in weeks! I thought you both ran off to get as far away from here as possible! I only came here because I’d prayed to Orijin that there was a remote chance you might come back after last night.”
    “We’re staying in the forest south of the village, a couple miles into it so no one will spot us. It wasn’t safe for you to come here, though.”
    “Look, my parents don’t know I’m here. By morning though, they’ll realize that I’m gone, and I’m sure this is the first place they’ll look. I needed to see you,” she said. “I felt so horrible pushing you away, but it wasn’t my choice. They forced me to do it! They threatened to marry me off to Garrick Mol right away if I didn’t!”
    Bo’az interjected. “Garrick Mol? The banker? The man is more than twice our age! Is money that important to them?”
    “Tasz, I’m sorry! I know we haven’t seen each other in so long and we don’t have a plan about what we’ll do and we’ll have to leave Haedon forever, but I couldn’t face living the way my parents want me to. I need you.”
    Bo’az walked over to her and took her hand in his. “Calm down Yas, calm down. We’ll figure something out. It’ll be fine.” That’s something Tasz would’ve said, I think.
    “Calm down? Calm down? I just gave up my life here for you, Tasz! The first thing my parents are going to do in the morning is have this whole property torn down to find me! If we’re still here, you’ll be dead and I’ll be the slave wife of Garrick Mol! And if we’re not here, they’ll comb the forest and mountains to find me! And the best you can say is ‘calm down?’ We need to get out of here and get a head start to make sure we’re not found!”
    “I’m sorry; I’m sorry, it’s just that this is all so sudden…I came here planning to get some clothes and supplies for me and Ba…Bo’az. Let’s just take a second and figure out how to get out of here and what we need to take.” He sat on the bed next to her.
    Yasaman laid back on the bed, her feet resting on Bo’az’s lap. “You’re right…I’ve been so wound up lately, it would be best to take a little while to think things through. I assumed you’d want to just get out of Haedon as quickly as me. You’ve always been just as whimsical as me. I guess so much has changed since your