CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

SOKATH WOKE TO THE SOUND of heavy gallops approaching, the sand shifting beneath him. He stumbled out of the tent, tripping over his own feet and catching himself in the sand, where he was met with the sight of horse hooves.

He looked up.

And blamed the sand for the tears in his eyes.

Toha peeled the cloth mask around his face, wiping off days old sand from around his eyes. “Hello, brother.”

Behind him, Rain got off his horse, giving it reassuring words before heading towards his oldest brother as well.

“Where’s father?” Sokath asked warily.

Rain jerked his head back, shaking sand off his brazen face. “We came first, father’ll be here shortly. He has the caravan with him. So until then, let me rest my eyes.” The youngest tumbled onto the sand, sprawled out and sighing. They had travelled for three days without rest to make due with time, and Rain took note that he would never do it again, nor his horse, Red.

“Did-” Sokath fumbled over his words, the sensation of his heart constantly dropping making him sick “-did I disappoint him?”

Rain and Toha looked at eachother. They both understood that they were only here because their brother had failed to kill the Caliph and bring Mazeeda home. They were the last resort and it had come down to that.

Rain knew, even as the youngest, that father tended to give Sokath the cold shoulder, always favoring Mazeeda. It wasn’t that his father was unloving, but rather, was too preoccupied with watching Mazeeda grow.

If Toha remembered correctly from rumors, his father expected Mazeeda to be a boy upon birth -he prayed everyday and even begged his smallgods- but when he discovered that it was a girl, he was overcome with guilt. Since then, Toha had this belief that the reason he couldn’t love Sokath in the same way as he did with Mazeeda, was because he was too blinded in fixing his guilt to pay attention.

“You will get your answer when he comes,” Toha said.

“PLEASE,” AMON BEGGED, SETTING DOWN the utensils next to his plate of food before rubbing his temples, “will you ever shut that mouth of yours?”

“Well, how could I?!” bawled Sinbad. “How dare the two of you make a bet on your friend?”

“You forgot Khai,” interjected Zaabit, who sat next to him at the long table. “As well as the queen’s two maids.”

“I know that, but do you see him at the table? And I should let you know-”

“By my gods,” Amon whined once again, “you’ve made your point, quite clearly too -multiple times, if I must say. My ears are practically bleeding at this point, where are your table manners?”

“Even Sonya has better manners,” Sinbad’s brother muttered under his breath.

“I do not understand this situation we’re in,” said Khai’s uncle. “If I do remember after all this jargon you sputtered out, it was the three of us who lost the bet and you lost nothing. So I don’t quite understand why you are the one upset and not us. Even Mazeeda isn’t fazed by it.”

They all looked at their queen, who was picking away at the vegetables she did not like or never seen before, her mind clearly elsewhere. When Sinbad’s cough caught her attention, she found three equally handsome men staring at her expectantly. “What is it?”

“My brother wanted to know your opinion on the bet we made between the two of you,” Zaabit informed her.

“I thought nothing much of it.”

“We can see that,” Sinbad said obviously.

“Well, I find it unnecessary to be so absurdly upset if we had nothing to lose.”

“Hear hear,” Zaabit boasted. “Take some notes on our queen, Sinbad.”

Amon did not jump into the conversation right away, observing the Malika, who was still absent-mindedly abusing her food. He couldn’t believe he didn’t realize sooner how distracted she was. Was it because her conversation with Sinbad went badly? he thought. No… “If you are curious, I would like to inform you that Khai will not be joining us for dinner tonight. He is up in his room getting his bandages rewrapped.”

The table fell silent as they watched their queen stand up swiftly. All eyes on her. Watching what she was to do next. They knew very well what she was going to do.

“Perhaps,” the storyteller began, “I shall bring up his dinner.”

Sinbad hid his mischievous smirk behind his words. “Perhaps you shall.” He made a gesture with his hand, as if to give her the permission she didn’t need to leave.

At once, when the doors behind Mazeeda shut, the Zaabit spoke up. “Should we have told her that Khai had his dinner brought up to him hours ago?”

The male storyteller cackled out a laugh. “I am willing to bet double both your pays that she has other intentions other than dinner.”

“My smallgods bestowed me an idiot as a brother.”

Amon, who was co-consciously aware of the conversation happening around, tried to soothe his raging thoughts and anxieties. Khai had explicitly told him not to have anyone come to his room unannounced, not even Mazeeda, especially now that he was wounded. Because the wound itself was the problem. From what Khai told him, the wound was not healing the way it was supposed to; and that it was best to start fearing for the worst.

AS MAZEEDA MADE IT TO his room, she stood still. On the other side of the door was her husband, her king, her killer. Do I knock? Or do I just walk right in? But even then, she had to remind herself that she was his queen. Pushing all her anxiety away, she turned the knob and let herself in.

She couldn’t believe the sight she saw before her eyes.

SOKATH'S FACE DISTORTED INTO DISGUST and anger and hurt at the people in front of him. His hand twitched at his side, wanting to grab the small dagger wedged at his side, but thought better of it. He’d rather instead spit sand at them. “Get out of my line of vision,” he growled out.

The sight of seeing Alik and Shazerade in the flesh was too traumatizing. He had left to forget them, and yet the smallgods dare tease him.

“Sokath, if you just let us explain-” Shazerade began, unsure if she should have spoken his name or not.

“How dare you show your faces here!” His breath was coming out heavy and hotter than the air around them.

Yusuf jumped off the camel and stalked to his son, his eyes hard and heavy as they stared him down. “If you are looking for someone to blame, put it on me. I had asked them to come with me, they wanted to stay behind, but I insisted.”

“They should have stayed,” Sokath said, staring at them over his father’s shoulder. “I have no use for them in this revolt.”

“I do though. Let’s discuss this over the fire.” The leader of Evilla only smiled, guiding his son away from them for the moment.

|AUTHOR'S NOTE|

was this a boring chapter? how did you like it?

but what i can say that next chapter is gonna be gooood from the way i set things up in this one. bc some stuff are gonna go down (only a little bit).

anyways, this quarantine is making me insaneeeeee so yk, why not publish a chapter. i'm on, like, week one thousand (more like week ten or eleven but still).

question: what is your fav studio ghibli film? or movie if you don't have one?