Chapter 15
T he following day, Aza neither saw nor heard from the King. Her meals were brought to her room by servants who kept their heads down and spoke no words to her.
The silent treatment . He has the nerve to give me the silent treatment and force his servants to as well, given his horrible behavior yesterday.
That only infuriated her further, and she pulls out her notebook and quill. She began scribbling across the page.
Dear Baba,
I regret to inform you of several things.
First, although I’m sure one of my guardsmen has already written to you, we were attacked by bandits on our journey here.
Thankfully, there were no casualties. Secondly, this meeting is far from going well.
This king has been nothing but hostile to my guards and rude and improper toward me.
I have a very bad feeling about him and his kingdom.
Something here is just not right. I will admit I have had visions and small episodes here, but it is more than just that.
I implore you, Father, to allow us to return home early and cease any talk of marriage to this king and to any binding of our kingdoms.
Yours,
Amiaza
Aza didn’t care if the letter was hasty or informal; it was her father she was sending it to, after all. She just wanted to get to the point that this king was bad news and she needed to come home.
After sealing the letter, Aza brings it out to Jahar and her other guard, asking to have it delivered swiftly and discreetly to her father. The guard obliged and scurried off.
Jahar gave her a quizzical look once they were alone.
“What?” Aza asked innocently.
“What did your letter say, my dear Princess?”
“I told my father how dazzling the city looks on the outside,” Jahar shakes his head incredulously, “and how terrible it is on the inside, and that we should return home immediately.”
“You should be careful about what leaves your tongue here, Princess.” Jahar quietly warns.
“Well then, why did you ask?”
Jahar doesn’t have an answer for her but instead ushers her into her room.
With the door closed behind them, he continues, “I merely meant that disrespecting a king is not wise while we are guests in his castle. He has all kinds of servants and guards patrolling his castle, and who knows who else might be watching.”
“So you also think this place isn’t what it seems.” Aza blurted.
“That is not at all what I said. I think you should just tread lightly.” Jahar continues to warn.
“Well, hopefully we won’t have too much longer when my father grants us permission to return home early.”
“We only have a few days left. I don’t know if he will.
“But he’s my father. He does care about my thoughts and well-being… at least to some extent.” Aza claims.
“I never said he didn’t. Let’s not make any assumptions. We will just wait to hear back. Can I get you anything or set up anything for you to keep you busy in the meantime?”
“No. I’m going to take some time for myself and then read. Thank you.”
“Of course, Princess.” Jahar bows and exits her room.
Aza did her best to keep herself busy all day, but she couldn’t shake the gnawing anxiety creeping in, waiting for her father’s response and the increasing amount of time she was spending in this castle, being shunned by the King.
Not to mention trying to keep her distance from Jahar whenever possible.
Aza took Jahar’s words to heart and was now worried that they were indeed being watched, and she didn’t know what King Abasi was capable of.
She had eventually gone off to bed, but Aza couldn’t fall asleep.
So here she was again, staring out the window, trying to pass the time.
Raindrops speckled the window. Jahar had already returned to the guards’ quarters by now.
He was finally getting some rest and alone time, well, almost alone time since he had to share rooms with some of the other guards.
But the last thing she wanted to do was bother him yet again, and she didn’t want to look like a whining coward since she felt like that was all she had been lately.
So she sat, staring out the window at the glistening city that seemed too good to be true.
It was hard to see much more in the distance.
But before the city, and lining the path of the outer wall of the allure and the road to the city, a dense forest stretched beyond.
Aza had been watching the movements of little animals and birds and had tried to pick out the various plants and flowers she saw growing there, but even with the moon overhead, it was still dark.
Aza was about to retreat back into her bed again when movement caught her eye.
It was hard to see at first, but eventually the shapes resolved into three figures, two men dragging—no, hauling—another man across the road and into the trees.
He looked unconscious. Or at least close to it.
They found a place to stop about two rows of trees in and throw the man against the tree.
Then, to Aza’s horror, one of the men began striking him again and again.
Despite the darkness, Aza saw something dark spray from his face that she can only assume was blood.
Aza wanted to look away, but couldn’t as the other man steps in and begins forcing kicks into the man’s abdomen.
The man tried to curl in on himself, his head lolling from the impacts.
Disgust twisted in her gut, Aza told herself it had to be a vision. She shuts her eyes as hard as she can and sprints out of her bedroom and into the sitting area. She grabs the glass of water from the small table and splashes it in her face.
There weren’t many things that made the visions go away, but Aza has found that if just closing her eyes doesn’t work, leaving the room they are happening in and shocking her body into a distraction, like cold water to the face, can sometimes jerk her out of it entirely.
After taking calming breaths and wiping her face off, Aza goes back into her bedroom and glances out the window once more, but to her horror, the man is now severely battered and unconscious.
She wouldn’t be surprised if he were already dead.
But after the two men try to pick him up and then proceed to drag his limp body through the forest. She has no doubt he was dead, despite the low vision due to the rain’s increasing intensity.
Horrified, she rushes out of her room to beckon her guards. Frantically, she yells, “Hurry. Come look out my window. A man… a man was just attacked and killed. We need to do something, to tell someone.”
“Calm down, Princess. It was probably nothing. There’s a storm tonight, and it’s dark out.” Says Arik.
“No, no! I saw it happen! Please, come look!”
“Princess, that’s unlikely. You were probably having one of your visions. It is quite late, you need to get some rest.” Ramsee, the other guard, declares.
“Goddammit! Listen to me! That’s an order!” Aza shouts.
Arik looks taken aback, and Ramsee huffs as they follow her into the room. She races to the window as they take their time.
“No!” She shrieks, infuriated.
Ramsee steps up, looking out the window and letting out yet another annoyed sigh, “See, Princess, it was just your imagination.”
“No! I know what I saw! It wasn’t a vision! I know my visions trick me and scare me at first, but I know when they’re a vision, and this was not that! You guys took too long to get in here! Had you just listened to me and come when I asked, you would have seen too!”
Ramsee gives her a cynical stare.
“Fuck you! I’m not utterly crazy!” She spats at him and then begins to storm out of her room, “Both of you move out of my way!”
Aza doesn’t stop storming until she reaches her guards' rooms, where she begins rapping on the door with her knuckles. Jahar flings the door open.
“What’s wrong?” He looks like he just jumped out of bed with his hair tousled and shirt barely buttoned.
Aza had the fleeting urge to look at him, and the defined line of his muscles, but her pure rage prevented her from doing so.
“A man was just brutally beaten in the woods. I saw the whole thing from my bedroom window. And no, it was not a vision! I went to my so-called guards for help, and they refused to believe me or help! By the time they finally came in to check it out, the men were already gone!” Aza tried to keep her voice steady, but it broke into a shriek by the end.
“Alright. Take a few breaths. And then let’s go through what exactly you saw.” Jahar says.
Aza does as he asks and tries to explain every detail she remembers.
“I will go find some guards and report it, and I will keep an ear out and see what I can find out about this. Alright?”
Aza’s unsure if he is just saying this to make her feel better or if he truly means what he says, but she nods her head anyway.
“I don’t want these two as my guards, I’d rather have no guards at all,” Aza announces with venom lacing her words.
“Okay, Princess. We will station new guards. I’ll fill in for tonight.” Jahar offers.
“No. I need you to rest. I need you to be with me during the day in case I need to go on escapades with the so-called King.”
“I would gladly guard you through the night, Princess,” Killian assured her, stepping out from behind Jahar, “And I will take young Colby with me; he could learn well from this.”
Aza agrees. Jahar bids her a good night, and Aza leaves with her new guards. As the door closes behind them, she hears Jahar raise his voice, and she lingers a minute to hear what he has to say.
“What were you guys thinking?” He barks, “It is not your job to question the Princess; any and all concerns she has, you address immediately. Whether or not you believe it to be true, her safety and well-being are your only priority! Do you understand?"
Aza hears a "Yes, Sir,” before a smile reaches her lips and she walks back to her room for the night.