The New Princess of Egypt

Part 12

My body jolts and a horrified scream emits from my lips. 

Then I sit up straight, sweat beads running down my face from my brow to my cheeks. Mother Maat bursts into my chambers and seats herself beside my hip. My brother stands at the doorway, swallowing his yawns and a worried expression on his face. Rays of sunlight reach their warm fingers to me, the tips of them just ending at the foot of my bed. Mother Maat whispers sweet nothings into my hair, hugging me and resting my head on her collarbone. 

"It was just a bad dream, dear. Nothing can harm you here in the palace." She coos. 

Later that day, around noon, I wrap a cloak around me and pull a hood over my head. My mother and brother had left me in peace, believing a day off alone in my chambers would calm me down. I creep out onto the balcony and slip off the edge, clambering down into the streets. A scroll bounces around in my pocket, a letter from Ubaid. He said that today was a day where he and his sons were free to join me for a meal together in the markets. I make my way through the bustling crowds, searching for my true family. Then I spot them, they're gathered at a table-for-four by a particularly big food stall. I rush forward, dodging the peddlers and merchants around me. I stop at the table, raising my hood just a bit so my adoptive family could see me smile. They all grin back, Dakarai hugs me around the waist and guides me to the seat in between him and Ubaid. 

"So how have you all been?" I ask, getting a little jittery with happiness. 

"We've been good, Akila. Though we've had to move home around a few times thanks to the soldiers that the Capital keeps sending after us." Ubaid replies slowly. 

"But we're better now that you're here!" Dakarai adds cheerfully. 

"We've all been wondering though, when do you plan on coming back home?" Darius butts in in a more serious tone, his frown prominent. He's definitely inherited Ubaid's face from the gene pool. 

I slump down a bit, I hadn't actually thought it through that far, "I honestly don't know...". I hang my head down in shame. 

"You know, I swear you could actually be my daughter with that. Or at least Darius and Dakarai's sister with me nowhere to be found." Ubaid sighs, slapping his forehead. 

"I know... You're the only one of us who can actually foretell the consequences of things we do." I add grimly, still looking at my hands resting on my lap. 

"I'm hoping you'll all grow to be like me in that way too. I used to be like you three too but I changed with age, if I can learn to change my ways then you three idiots can too." Ubaid replies. I flick my head up to pay closer attention to him, Darius and Dakarai do the same. 

Ubaid just plays the sarcastic card, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't be too surprised. I was young and dumb in the past too, though it has been many years since that part of my life.". We all laugh and grin. 

For the rest of the day I take my time to enjoy the company of my adoptive family. Dakarai gets very chatty about a girl he'd met and is getting close too, then he asks why Darius doesn't have a girlfriend. Darius just sits there, simmering for a while with expected jealousy. Me and Ubaid chuckle under our breaths at the two brothers. All Darius talks about was his studies, he's always too busy with his nose in a scroll or his butt on a camel on the way to collect a bounty. He never really makes the time needed to have a girlfriend. 

Too soon though in my opinion, the sun begins to set and daytime turns to dusk. I have to get back to the palace. I hug Darius, Dakarai and Ubaid tightly under the dimming orange sunlight then turn away and run as fast as I can down a thin alleyway. I jump up to the top of an apple cart and clamber up the side of the alleyway before it can tilt back down again from my weight. 

Truthfully, it doesn't take too long to get back to the palace from the market, but today it feels like it's taking longer and longer. It feels like I'm suddenly getting slower and slower. Then on the roofs, I come across a dingy alleyway where a couple guards stand drinking beer in their break time. Normally I would've just carried on jogging, but I feel like something's pulling me to stay here. I lie flat on my stomach, hanging my head and shoulders over the edge of the thatched roof, and listen in as the last bit of sunlight drops off the other side of the world and a half-moon takes it's place. 

"Did you hear about Daivari? He was complaining about all the killing we've been ordered to do lately." One particularly dark-skinned guard says. 

"Yeah, yeah. We've all heard about the deserter. To be honest I don't think anyone really noticed when he left, Mohammed." The other guard replies, I noticed the ends of his knotted chocolate hair is bleached a yellow-white colour. 

"Yeah, Khan. But one man deserting leaves an opening for others, there's been rumblings about other people following him." Mohammed whines, leaning forward a bit. 

Khan cocks his head to the side and presses his ear into his shoulder, "Really? I hadn't heard about that. The cowards.". 

Then I accidentally knock a rock off the roof. I hear it clatter down into the alleyway and instantly shuffle backwards out of sight as the two guards peer up to where I was. I pull myself to my feet and sprint off into the darkness, I could just see the balcony to my chambers. Puffing, I run on for a minute before kicking off of the palace wall and jumping up to the balcony like an acrobat. First gripping onto the lip of the balcony, I reach up with one hand to the railing. Once I have a good hold on the rails, my other hand joins it. I swing my hips back and land with my feet on the balcony's lip. Twisting my upper body around, I swing a leg over the railing and sit for a while. Then I pull my entire body over the railing and waltz into my chambers. Stripping down, I change into a nightdress and snuggling into the pillows on my bed.