Shadow Seer [18+]

~ Twenty-Two ~

The following day, Sanaa was finally permitted to see Archimedes. A servant arrived with an invitation to meet him for breakfast and so, with Miri's help, Sanaa bathed and changed into deep purple trousers and the matching cropped top with gold slippers. A veil was set over her hair and around her face and she set off determinedly. She walked the hallways confidently now, knowing that Ghassan could not be lurking around any corner. No matter how large the palace was, when he was around, danger was always a possibility. With him incapacitated, a lightness had come across the palace that even Miri couldn't deny. She'd reported that there was still no change in Ghassan and that the servants had started taking bets on when he would die. The bets themselves were an act of treason, so it said a lot about how far Miri had come to trusting her, if she spoke so freely about it, however prompted.

Sanaa's vision of the little boy being tortured by Ghassan had rattled her into action. She had to kill him and she had to do it before he woke to carry out what she'd Seen. She couldn't allow a child to be tortured by him if she had the opportunity to stop it. She would confirm her route through the tunnels and then she would kill him. Now was the best and only time since everyone expected him to die anyway. What did it matter if she was the one to do it?

Sanaa stood outside Archimedes chambers and when she was finally let in by his attendants, she strode in looking for his bedchamber. Archimedes' rooms were just as she'd expect them to be: flamboyant. The purple and gold draping and furniture matched his personality completely, but the man she saw in his bed, did not.

"What happened to you?" Sanaa rushed into the room, speaking in Agmantian as she took hold of his hand and squeezed. Archimedes looked pale, his usually dark skin a pallid grey that was scary to behold. She'd been ready to scream at him for denying her a visit and his conversation with Amir but she couldn't find the words. He was easily twenty pounds thinner, his eyes seeming sunken in.

"Food poisoning they say," he coughed into a handkerchief he held to his mouth. "But I think it's just good old poison."

Sanaa was taken back, "Who would want to poison you, Archimedes?"

"A great many people I would imagine, not just that prince."

"Amir?"

"I didn't realise you'd gotten so friendly?" Archimedes said, almost accusingly. Sanaa was immediately defensive while simultaneously grateful for the opening to bring up Amir.

"No more friendly than you."

"Excuse me?" Archimedes asked, still speaking Agmantian. Sanaa narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him from where she knelt at the side of his bed.

"You were talking with the prince a few days ago. What about?"

"How did you–? When did you–? Have you been spying on me?"

"Have you been lying to me?"

"Stop answering questions with a question!" he snapped.

"Then start giving me some real answers!" she barked back. "I will not be dismissed and lied to by you of all people Archimedes. I know you and the prince were talking so tell me what it was about."

Archimedes shook his head, his eyes wide seemingly out of fear that he had been found out.

"I cannot."

"Why are you keeping things from me?" she asked softly, genuinely hurt. "You knew of Ghassan's plans to wed me, to make me Empress and didn't tell me and now you have secret meetings with the prince and wish to keep this from me too."

"I do both those things to keep you safe!" he protested.

"I would have believed that Archimedes, if I hadn't just watched you lie to my face about Amir's intentions. You were fully prepared to spin some lie about Amir trying to poison you when you were speaking with him only days ago, so stop lying!"