Rajah's Curse

Chapter 45: A Ride

It was close, but precisely 26 minutes later, I was strolling into the stable yard with deceptive ease.

"Prince Dhiren!" Sultan Hamed, the snake, waved me over to one of the horse stalls with a big carefree smile on his face. "You're just in time."

"Of course," I replied, coming up to him. The sultan didn't need to know about the minor hurricane in my room or how Vinit and I had dashed about like crazed bees to get me ready within the half-hour as the sultan demanded. That was my business.

The oblivious sultan handed me a red apple. "Here."

"Thank you," I told him. As I had eaten little at breakfast today, I was a bit hungry. I lifted up the apple to examine it. However, before I could even think of taking my first bite, there was a flash of white and the apple was gone.

I stared at my now empty hand.

Beside me, the sultan burst out into laughter. "Oh! Oh my!" he rasped out between fits of mirth. "What a scamp! How funny!"

I closed my eyes briefly and breathed. And so, it began again. Once more, I reminded myself that I was a prince. Anger was beneath me and I was above it.

When I opened my eyes, I felt someone watching me. Not the sultan, he was still laughing. It was the horse in the stall.

I vaguely remembered this old grey. We had met before. The stallion had belonged to the sultan's wife and now that I was thinking about it, there was a rumor that the sultan came out here every morning specifically to feed this horse an apple. Why anyone would want to spoil such a creature I had no idea.

Yes, the horse was impressively large and presumably fast, but he also looked incredibly ill-tempered. His eyes were hard like a seasoned veteran and the expression of victory and defiance that lingered in the horse's face was hardly endearing.

I smiled at him.

The stallion's nostrils flared and he took an involuntary step back. Like all horses and most prey animals, he was a bit afraid of me. Legends claimed it was another side-effect of my amulet. I suppose if I could sense that the human in front of me could morph into a tiger, I would be on edge too.

"Oh my," the sultan said, finally becoming coherent again. "That was funny. I am sorry, Prince Dhiren-"

I sincerely doubted he was.

"-I meant to explain the apple wasn't for you," the sultan continued, "but Sahara beat me to it."

"So, I noticed," I said smoothly, feeling a bit better after staring down the horse. "Sahara is used to his daily apple, is he not?"

The sultan gave me a speculative look. "That he is. The old boy was Cyrila's horse. I wasn't sure you would remember."

Yet another test.

"I do now," I said, for that was all the curse would let me claim.

The sultan chuckled. "Yes, well, Sahara has quite the personality. Don't you?" The sultan went up on his tiptoes to peak at the stallion who had wisely retreated to the back of his stall. "And it seems, you remember the prince too."

The sultan fell back on his heels and returned his focus to me. "You never were the best with horses."

"I'm afraid I am not an animal person," I agreed.

"It is too bad," the sultan said.

I braced myself for a joke about the irony of my statement, but instead, he said, "Few people are perfect. We must all try our best, I suppose." The sultan patted me on the back in a condescending manner that I did not appreciate.