Lailah Naghib

Prince Ghassan, son of the Sultan of Nishapur, was away for seven years in the east, securing the frontier, even as far as India, and returned home to find the sultanate much changed, in turmoil, as another usurper seeks to claim the throne. But this time the rebels are drawing on the dark magic of the kingdom, conjuring a coven that serves a mysterious goddess in the mountains to eliminate Prince Ghassan...

The usurper was swiftly captured by Prince Ghassan, but the threat posed by the coven remained, and so Prince Ghassan set out on a journey across the desert to destroy the coven and their secret temple. Protected by amulets supplied by the Court Magician, the Prince resisted the illusions of the witch-priestesses and put each of them to the sword, burning the bodies. But was then tricked by his companion, the Magician, into drinking water from the fabled pool of El-Zahra, which has the property of transforming any man into a maiden, a creature of shameful and insatiable lusts: a houri and priestess of the Goddess Ishtar.

Seeking refuge with friends in the city of Celestara, Prince Ghassan quickly came to see them very differently from his new perspective, Intoxicated with love, Ghassan felt no hesitation in offering himself body and soul to his former friend, Sheikh Jamshed al-Nagib. His mind eventualy cleared, but the damage was done, and the humbled prince returned in shame to Nishapur: shorn of masculinity, honour, victory, even his newly minted maidenhead.

The Sultan put it out that Prince Ghassan had been sent again into the east. The following day a hitherto unknown princess called Lailah made her debut at Nishapur. Tomboyish and strong willed, she soon earned her a reputation as a troublemaker in the Court of Nishapur, and is even said to have prevented the escape of the usurper captured by her brother, wielding a short sword with expert hand.

It came as no surprise when the headstrong Princess was found to have fled to the Arabian merchant-town of Celestara to search for her lost brother. Nor that she should have been seen in the Saracen camp and in the company of glamourous Sheikh Jamshed Al-Nighab, a great friend of the lost prince, and notorious playboy. Rumours of a royal romance were soon flying, and the scandal only grew when the princess began to show signs of a pregnancy, with an unmistakable baby-bump under her abaya.

The two royals were in fact head over heels in love - each being sufficiently wild at heart to tame the other. In time, the Sheikh did the unthinkable and proposed marriage, and the princess did the unthinkable and eloped with him, tearfully, a conquered woman. The two enjoyed a passionate honeymoon, and Lailah Nagib was soon expecting her first-born. She is now the mother of two children, and is struggling to recover her lost figure. She hopes in time to be reconciled to her family, and to regain her status as a warrior and a ruler.