Blink of an Eye
ACCLAIM FOR TED DEKKER'S NOVELS
“Ted Dekker has been here for years, but he's finally arrived. [T]his is what true storytelling
is.
”
â
The Bookshelf Reviews
advance praise for
Skin
“[C]ompelling, thought-provoking fiction that is wildly out-of-the-box, speculative, [and] boundary-breaking.”
âTitleTrakk.com advance review of
Skin
“
Saint
is filled with intense, edge-of-your-seat action that will keep you turning pages until you are finished. There's something compelling about [Dekker's] writing style that sets it apart from anyone else I've ever read and
Saint
certainly doesn't veer from that path.
âepinions.com
“
Saint
reads like
The Bourne Identity
(Robert Ludlum), meets
The Matrix
, meets
Mr. Murder
(Dean Koontz).”
â5 out of 5 stars from
The Bookshelf Reviews
“Fans of Dekker and supernatural suspense will relish this creative thriller.”
â
Library Journal
review of
Saint
“A master of suspense reminiscent of Dean Koontz and John Grisham, Ted Dekker keeps readers on their toes trying to solve the mystery of Saint's identity.”
âRomance Junkies
“Dekker's in fine form here, delivering another blockbuster of action, mystery, and suspense, while serving up some of his most heartrending scenes ever. This latest plot is a breathless, winding maze of intrigue, and his tightest non-stop thrill ride since
Thr3e
.”
âINFUZE review of
Saint
“[In
Showdown
] Dekker delivers his signature exploration of good and evil in the context of a genuine thriller that could further enlarge his already sizable audience.”
â
Publishers Weekly
“Only Peretti and Dekker [in
House
] could have delivered this full-tilt supernatural thriller. They had me ripping through the pages . . . then blew me away with a final twist, I never saw coming. Can't wait to see the movie!”
âRalph Winter, producer of
X-Men 3
and
Fantastic Four
“[In
Obsessed
] an inventive plot and fast-paced action put Dekker at the top of his game.”
âLibrary Journal
“[With
Thr3e
] Dekker delivers another page-turner . . . masterfully takes readers on a ride full of plot twists and turns . . . a compelling tale of cat and mouse . . . an almost perfect blend of suspense, mystery, and horror.”
â
Publishers Weekly
“Dekker is the most exciting writer I've read in a very long time.
Blink
will expand his fan base tremendously. Wonderful reading . . . powerful insights. Bravo!”
âTed Baehr, President,
MOVIEGUIDE
®
Magazine
DEK
K
ER FANTASY
BOOKS OF HISTORY CHRONICLES
THE LOST BOOKS
Chosen
Infidel
Renegade
Chaos
THE CIRCLE TRILOGY
Black
Red
White
PROJECT SHOWDOWN
Showdown
Saint
Sinner
(SEPTEMBER 2, 2008)
Skin
House
(with Frank Peretti)
DEK
K
ER MYSTERY
Blink of an Eye
MARTYR'S SONG SERIES
Heaven's Wager
When Heaven Weeps
Thunder of Heaven
The Martyr's Song
THE CALEB BOOKS
Blessed Child
A Man Called Blessed
DEK
K
ER THRILLER
THR3E
Obsessed
Adam
© 2002, 2007 by Ted Dekker
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansâelectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherâexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Publisher's Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dekker, Ted, 1962â
[Blink]
Blink of an eye / Ted Dekker.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-287-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-59554-475-9 (IE)
ISBN 978-1-59554-480-3 (trade paper)
1. PrincessesâSaudi ArabiaâFiction. 2. Muslim womenâSocial conditionsâFiction. 3. Graduate studentsâCaliforniaâFiction. 4. PrecognitionâFiction. I. Title.
PS3554.E43B586 2007
813'.54âdc22
2007031413
Printed in the United States of America
08 09 10 11 12 RRD 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
contents
Conversation with the Author about this New Edition
m
iriam swept the purple velvet drape to one side and gazed through the window to the courtyard. The marble palace had been completed just last year and was easily the grandest of her father's residences. She hadn't visited all of them, but she didn't need to. Prince Salman bin Fahd had four wives, and he'd built each of them three palaces, two in Riyadh, and one in Jidda. All four wives had identical dwellings in each location, although to say his wives
had
the palaces was misleading.
Father
had the palaces, and he had wives for each.
This, Salman's thirteenth palace, he'd built solely for special events such as today's, the wedding of Sita, one of Miriam's closest friends.
Outside, the sun glinted off a spewing fountain in the center of a large pond. Bright red petals from two hundred dozen roses flown in from Holland blanketed the water. Evidently the groom, Hatam bin Hazat, had heard that his young bride liked red roses. Upon seeing the extravagant display two days earlier, Sita vowed never to look upon another red rose in her life.
Dozens of Filipino servants crossed the lawn, carrying silver trays stacked high with every imaginable food, prepared by eighteen chefs brought in from Egypt. Roast almond duck, curried beef rolled in lamb flanks, liver-stuffed lobsterâMiriam had never seen such an extravagant display. And this for the women only. As at many Saudi weddings, the male guests would never actually see the women. Custom required two separate ceremonies for the simple reason that women attended weddings unveiled. The traditional path of the Wahhabi sect forbade a man from seeing the face of a woman unless she was a family member or tied closely to his family.
Sounds of music and drums and gaiety drifted through the window. The world mistook the prevailing cultural practices in the Arabian Peninsula as unfair to women, Miriam often thought. She'd studied at the University of Berkeley in California for three months two summers ago and had first heard there the misconception that a Saudi woman dies three times during her span on earth.
It was said that she dies on the day of her first menses, when she is forced to don the black veil and slip into obscurity; she dies on the day of her wedding, when she is given as a possession to a stranger; and she dies when she finally passes on. She'd been tempted to slap the woman who uttered the words.
Perhaps if the Americans knew Saudi history better, they would hold their tongues. True enough, a woman was traditionally forbidden from some of the activities accepted by the Westâdriving, for example. Or giving testimony in a dispute. Or walking about freely with her face uncovered. But all of these practices advanced Saudi culture in ways the West did not see. Saudis understood the value of strong families, for example. Of loyalty to God and his word. Of respect for an order that supported both families and God.
Miriam let her mind drift over the events that had placed her and her friend Sita here, in this magnificent palace, where they awaited the ceremony that would change Sita's life as she knew it.
The kingdom's first king, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, conquered Riyadh in 1902. He was in his early twenties then. The four kings who had ruled since his death in 1953 were all his sons. But when Miriam looked down history's foggy halls, she decided it was the first king's women, not his sons, who shaped the country. He'd taken over three hundred wives, and it was these women who gave him so many sons.