CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A COLD SWEAT SWEPT OVER Mazeeda as she waited silently for Khai to answer. Surely he couldn't know; no one saw Sokath but her.

“Khai,” she warned. For some reason, the Calipha wanted to be the one to tell them. It would feel too wrong for her husband to spill it, it would be the equivalence of ripping every fiber of her being until all her secrets were out for everyone to see.

“Her brother,” the Malik said slowly, enunciating each syllable. “Sokath if I recall.”

“Khai,” she grit out, unnecessary tears brimming from her eyes. Gods, she didn't know why she was on the verge of crying.

Amon cursed under his breath. He had always been prepared for anything his entire life, programmed by his father to adapt and overcome in the most inconvenient scenarios incase he would to become king under certain circumstances. In all his life, there was only two instances where he was unprepared: falling in love with Elce and this.

Because this felt like a betrayal to him. His defense mechanism spiked up in an instance, like a flood taking the smallest village. Surely, he hoped that he wasn't the only one who felt this way.

And like always, Amon was not wrong.

“Her brother?” Sinbad growled out, jabbing a dark finger her way. Now, oh gods now, she could not stand to look at her queen. His disloyal crooked queen. “You mean to tell me that your brother-in-law means to kill you? To kill us all?”

“Sinbad, let me explain myself. Please,” she begged. Mazeeda had never begged in her life, that was weakness in her father's eyes. You simply took what was needed with justice. She realised now that her father was wrong.

“Oh,” he chuckled coldly, piercing her skin deep enough where it stayed. “You had all this time to tell us and you did no such thing. Such a cruel wicked thing you are. Stringing us along like puppets, making us believe you were different from all the rest, made me trust you. But all along, you wanted our glorious death. Let me tell you one thing about the Kingdom of Yaheisea, we do not go gently into the night.”

A strong warm hand was placed softly on Mazeeda's shoulder, making her jump. It was Zaabit's.

“Leave your damn accusations in your mouth," he said. "I will leave my judgement to be led by facts, not mere speculation. She couldn't have known."

“How could she not know? Look at her deafening silence, it tells us everything."

"I only craft my words when it's necessary," Mazeeda argued for herself, "I will not waste my breath on something I know nothing about. I refuse to defend myself if you're constantly attacking me."

"Liar," Sinbad gritted out, grinding his teeth together.

"How do you know if you're right?"

Everyone fell silent as they turned to the petite voice, all of them blinking dumbfoundedly at Sonya. She waited for any one of them to answer; Sinbad specifically. Khai's cousin never bothered with the fact that she had only known Mazeeda for the past three months, but by the fact that she knew the Malika was a good person.

"I've stumbled upon Evilla," he justified. "They were preparing for a war we knew nothing about, hoping to charge in on us while we were blindsided. So, impudent girl, I know when I am right. Unlike you, I know when to pick my battles in order to win the entire war."

Amon stalked towards the voyager, ready to punch the living stars out of him. He wished to his smallgods-

"Father stop," Sonya shook her head, getting off Khai's lap and making her way to Sinbad herself. She looked up, unfazed by his towering shadow. "I hope you know that the way you're acting is not who you are."

"Oh?" he mocked.

Amon's daughter crossed her arm and held her place. "The way you're acting now is how kingdoms fall within an entire day. Clear your head before speaking to my queen like that."

"Are you threatening me, Sonya?" Sinbad crouched down to her level.

"No," Mazeeda's stern and rigid voice pierced through, having enough with everyone —with Khai and his voyager specifically. "But I am though."

She was tired of it all. Too exhausted for people to put words in her mouth for her. Done with her husband and his inner circle. But most certainly, over herself.

"Because if you do not leave the room this instance, I promise you will be death's next gift from me." The Caliph waited and then spoke again. "My threats are not low and useless, they are costly and real."

Something snapped within Sinbad, for he straightened himself up, pivoted, and walked out the room without a single word. His demeanor was tense. Nobody knew it, but he was embarrassed and deathly afraid for only a split second.

Zaabit let out a low whistle.

The storyteller sighed as she got up from her seat and made her way towards the window. "I want you all gone as well. I need a word with my husband."

Shuffling filled the room as the rest made their way out the room.

As Mazeeda stared out the window, she wished it was the sea she was looking at, not the qasr walls and the city stretching on for miles. Somewhere out there, she knew Sokath was riding back to her village. Now, more than ever, did she wish to be with her brother.

"Say it already." Khai leaned his head back, looking at his lover through the slit of his eyes.

"You knew," she practically snarled at him, eyes still glancing out of the glass. "Gods, you knew."

The Caliph waited a moment longer. "You seem upset."

The Malika fisted her hands, wishing her dress had pockets to hide them. "Of course I am!" And then she swirled around, her dress loosely wrapping around her. She jabbed a finger. "I wanted to be the one to break it to them. I wanted to tell you. I wanted the opportunity to explain my side of the story when I thought the time was right."

Khai clicked his tongue. "Ah, I see. You just wanted to prove your innocence."

“No, I wanted…” she whispered, hesitating, unsure what to say. “I wanted…”

“What do you want, Zeeda? Tell me.”

What she wanted to do was grab Khai by the lapels of his shirt and shake him. To scream and yell and claw. She wanted silence amongst the chaos that was brewing. All Mazeeda would muster was, "Nothing...nothing you could ever manage to give me."

A glint in his eye made his brown eyes glow bright. With what, the storyteller did not know.

"I can give you everything," he purred. "I've made kingdoms that has been standing longer than mine fall in one day. I have cheated death to get what I want, it fears me. Cowers at my will even."

She scoffed, making her way towards Khai. "Then I believe fear has learned to fear me as well. I've escaped death more than I can count since my arrival here."

The Caliph laughed. "Darling, that is because I value you far too much to kill you."

Leaning forward, the Malika braces her hands on her thighs to look deeply into her husband's eyes. "Tell me, when Sinbad was burying me alive with his words why did you simply sit here like a weak king? No one but Sonya and Zaabit was there by my side when he refused to listen to a word I said. You simply sat there as I was getting a beating of my life, do you know how much that-"

"I planned it," he interrupted coldly, as if he wasn't listening to her speech at all. "All of it."

"No..." she said in disbelief. "You couldn't have."

He stayed silent, the only answer she needed.

"How dare you not tell me? Was I the only one to not know?”

Khai sat straighter. “Let me explain everything, every little detail if I must. I already knew before anyone that your brother was within the palace walls, Zaabit spotted him. Sinbad had suspected that he was here to assassinate me from what he gathered when he was in Evilla. If I was the one to make the decision, I would have killed him instantly.”

“Why didn’t you?” Mazeeda whispered, scared of his answer somehow.

“Because,” he said, staring into his wife’s eyes like a predator ready to strike its prey, “Amon convinced me otherwise. And because I knew that killing Sokath would only upset you more. Gods, you’d even hate me. So I gathered my inner circle and had a meeting on how we should act. Everything that happened two days ago was staged, from Sokath speaking to you, to the hanging, to the argument that took place moments ago.”

“So I was just a pawn in this game of yours.”

“It was necessary to luring your brother out of the shadows he hid in. Though Sinbad may have gone beyond his needed acting skills, to he expected from him of course."

“And your injury, was that intended?” It was the storyteller’s turn to do the interrogation now.

“No,” he stated simply. “But it was part of the risk.”

“Was I ever at risk? Did you think for a moment of what would have happened it my brother missed you and instead struck me?”

The king watched as his queen began pacing in front of him. Her steps were light, barely audible against the friction her dress was making. He was amazed by how oblivious she was to her stealthiness, how she could be a perfect assassin like her brother. And oh gods, damn him, but he would gladly let Mazeeda kill him softly. After all, he deserved it after making a thousand girls fall before her.

Khai snapped out of his sudden trance. "If you were to die, I would shatter the entire world. I would ignite my wrath and show no mercy like no one has seen before."

The storyteller stiffened, turned, and howled out a cold laugh. "Are you mad? You would bestow everyone your chaos over my body?" She took one, two, three steps towards the injured boy. Her eyes quickly scanned his tired face. "What does my life have that the thousand of girls don't?"

The Caliph grabbed his beloved by the wrist and tugged her his way, until she sat next to him, faces inches apart.

"Love of my heart," he paused, taking his time to capture her face. He noticed a small scar on the top of her lip and wondered when she would tell the story behind. "When the time comes, I will tell you a tale of a prince who fell deathly in love with an assassin. And it did not end well."

Mazeeda looked down at her fisted hands, frowning. "This story...it's about us isn't it?"

He shook his head, strands of hair sweeping over his forehead. "Finish Sharik and Leila's story, love. Their ending is nearing, and if I remember, it is a tragedy."

"No, they were star-crossed lovers who deserved far more than a that." The storyteller began to gather up her tale, ready to spill put the rest of the plot for him; ut then, something struck within her, as if looking through the eye of the storm.

Mazeeda realised that only she knew the ending to her own tale. She had made it up to save her life, made from scratch to preserve Shazerade's future. So how in the gods does he know how it ended? she thought to herself.

From the slick corner of her eyes, the Calipha studied her husband. It was in that moment when she knew that Khai knew more than he was letting on.

Something that had to do with the visions she kept seeing.