Nadyah gave Aliyah a blank stare. "I don't know what you mean. I was just checking the time. We need to be going soon." She glanced down toward the limo. Aliyah followed her gaze and saw the servants closing the completely filled trunk of the limo.
Aliyah saw Nadyah glance once more away in the direction of Qazhar city.
Then Aliyah heard a noise, a distant rumble, that sounded very much like an engine. It couldn't be a car coming up the driveway. She gazed in the direction that Nadyah had been searching moments before.
At first Aliyah didn't see anything unusual, even though the engine sound was growing louder. Then she heard the rhythmic pulse of the engine and realized what it was.
She squinted into the low sun, and then she saw it. A helicopter emerging, as if out of a dream, from the direction of the mid-morning sun.
Aliyah glanced at Nadyah. She could tell her friend was trying hard to suppress a smile. Aliyah gazed at the sight of the helicopter and it was obvious that it was headed for the palace. She watched as the helicopter came toward the open area of lawn directly in front of the terrace. It hovered over the garden and then settled slowly down onto the grass. The rotors slowed and the glass door of the helicopter opened. She saw there was only one person inside and she gasped when she saw that person emerge.
Shahid.