THE DANCING GIRL

Chapter 4

AS soon as she entered, wincing at the noise, she spotted Haqiya waving at her from one of the tables. She sat down beside the other girl. "Haqiya."

"Noor," Haqiya said, grinning. "Where were you all morning?"

Noor shrugged. "Helping out in the treasury. I needed to earn some extra money." She looked around. "Have you seen Amir, by the way?"

Haqiya nodded, glancing around the hall. "I have. He's somewhere over..." She pointed at a distant table. "There."

Noor spotted him eating alone and nodded. "Thank you, Haqiya."

"Wait!" Haqiya said, grabbing her arm. "I was supposed to tell you that we don't have a performance today aside from the night one—" Both she and Noor grimaced— "But tomorrow we have one in the morning."

"In the morning?" Noor asked, her eyebrows furrowing. "Why?"

Haqiya shrugged. "I'm not sure. Something about some foreign dignitaries visiting...Nazrat said they're being shown the 'charm' of the Al-Yauzhan courts."

"Ick," Noor said, grimacing.

"It's not that bad, we get to wear our nice costumes," Haqiya said matter-of-factly. "And we have to learn a new dance for tomorrow as soon as we're done eating, so don't you dare go to the library after this."

Noor sighed. "Alright. Thank you for telling me."

Haqiya nodded. "Of course. Now, go and eat before the food gets over."

Noor nodded quickly and stood up, waving at Haqiya before making her way to Amir, dodging the usual chaos of the room.

He looked up as she approached, shifting enough to make room for her. "Here," he said as she sat down. "I got you a plate."

"Thanks," she said, taking it and beginning to eat. "I was worried I was going to miss all the food."

Amir gave a short laugh. "That's very possible."

Noor looked. "Why are we sitting here today?"

Amir lifted one shoulder. "I came late as well. Our spot was gone."

Noor looked at him then, noting the dullness of his eyes, the tiredness written across his face. "What's wrong?"

Amir let out a breath, puffing out his cheeks. "There was a...problem in the courtesans' quarters today. Sahar and I have had out hands full trying to fix it. She's fed up with everyone."

Noor bit her lip. Sahar Suraksh and Amir were the most popular, well-trained courtesans. She'd rarely seen Sahar, especially, ruffled. The woman had a reputation for being calm during even the worst situations. "What happened?"

Amir rubbed his forehead. "A lot. No one else is supposed to know, all right?" He gave her a hard stare.

Noor nodded seriously.

He bit his lip. "One of the girls found out she's with child. She panicked, because no one wants a pregnant courtesan. She worried she wasn't going to be able to support her little siblings and took the...that particular drink."

Noor let out a soft gasp. "You mean the one that would kill the—"

Amir nodded. "Sahar and I stopped her before she could take it, but the others had heard. Everyone was afraid that the nobles would get to know, Sahar and I were busy comforting her, it was—it was a long day."

Noor bit her lip. She had too many questions. "What happened in the end?"

Amir blinked hard, like he was trying to stay awake. "We managed to get the girl calm, told her that we'd make sure her family wouldn't starve. Then we had to calm down the others. These younger ones, you know, they have no presence of mind. They were panicking and talking about it where all the servants could hear. Our servants are trustworthy, luckily."