Shadow Seer [18+]

~ Twenty Four ~

"Do not look him in the eye." Amir ordered, his steps hurried as Sanaa tried to keep up with him. He didn't bother turning his head to look at her. "Don't speak, don't even breathe too loudly."

Sanaa was smart enough not to ask questions. If Amir was demanding she be as small as possible, she would obey. She had no wish for Ghassan to take his anger out on her. Still, she was confused. If Ghassan were alive then Amir should not be. He'd made it clear that his father would know he was behind the attempt on his life, so how was Amir still alive? It was clear she couldn't ask him. Despite the questions tearing through her mind, Amir would not even look at her. While he'd waited in the doorway for Miri to dress her, he'd said nothing. She'd been in the other room, of course, but he'd not entered closer so he could speak to her or explain. They'd not seen each other for days and yet he had nothing to say to her. She felt betrayed.

Miri had dressed her in a pair of stone grey pants that cropped at the knee. The matching long sleeve tunic completed the outfit, both items embroidered with silver floral designs. Silver slippers covered her feet along with her usual veil in grey silk, pinned to her braided hair. Neither of them had spoken when they dressed her, but Sanaa knew why she'd done it and prayed it wouldn't matter.

"He's angry." It wasn't a question.

"Yes," came Amir's curt reply.

"Why?" Amir spun to face her, the movement so swift it almost knocked Sanaa off her feet. She ground to a halt in front of him, his eyes raging with something she couldn't immediately identify. He'd lost the colour in his cheeks, his beard less lustrous than usual.

"I tried to kill him, Sanaa! Not only that, he knows why!".

"H-how?" she was trying not to be hurt by his harsh tone, knowing it was only because he was scared for her.

"Not only did I betray him but he found out I let you out of your cage!" She tried to ignore how the use of the word cage had hurt her. She wasn't an animal.

"He knows about that?"

"Of course he knows! He knows everything!" The fire seemed to have gone out from inside him. "I was a fool to think I could keep us from him."

Us? She was a fool to be excited by those words, but it spoke volumes about how he viewed them. "Weren't others told not to inform him?" She realised it might have been childish for her to think that the entire palace would not have said something to Ghassan, but she had thought some plan was in place to keep it from him. No, Sanaa thought to herself. She'd simply assumed that Amir as acting emperor would be enough. That it wouldn't matter that he'd let her outside, because she'd hoped Ghassan would never wake up. But he had, and now she would pay the price for it.

"It seems my influence isn't as widespread among my men as I thought." The acceptance of that was killing him, Sanaa understood. That the soldiers he commanded, the men he worked with, killed with, might fear him, but they didn't respect him. The minute his father was awake, they ran to tell him Amir's secrets.

"Just keep quiet, Sanaa... for both our sakes." Sanaa pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, worried, as Amir continued leading her to the emperor's chambers. It was only then she noticed the limp in his step, the grimace on his face as he walked. The closer they got to Ghassan's room, the harder her legs trembled. He had beaten her in that room, tried to rape her... she didn't want to go in there. Sweat broke out across her brow and with trembling fingers, she brushed the droplets away. She would survive this. Even if her lock of white hair was a constant reminder that her body was not coping with the pressure put on it, she would survive this.

Moments passed and too soon, Sanaa and Amir arrived in the emperor's meeting chamber. As they stopped at the threshold, Amir finally turned to her and pulled her into his arms, and kissed her. Sanaa was shocked, totally unprepared for it, but sunk into the embrace, anyway. The solid feel of him beneath her fingers and against her stomach. His lips roamed her mouth, her neck, her ears and temple as he breathed her in.