Princess of the Nile
Chapter 14: Breathing in Sequence
The night was cool and clear skied. A bright moon shone eerily onto the expanse of desert and reflected greatly off the great white palace. The palace itself was dark inside, only the guards awake and moving through the corridors with the silence and grace of cats. A single light flickered in a room, and shadows danced on the walls.
She was curled on the bed, her arms wrapped tightly around a slaves waist, he was asleep, his skin warm against hers, and for a moment she smiled before blindly reaching around behind her. Her fingers found cool metal and slid up to the warmer hilt of the dagger before wrapping around it. Her smile grew into a sneer, and she pulled her arm back towards her, looking down at the dagger in her hand with passionate interest.
The weapon was the length of her forearm from elbow to wrist, and the blade coloured black by ash and filth, the hilt was a deep green, the pommel stone a emerald scarab beetle. The weapon called to her like a voice on the wind, and she lay entranced by it for several minutes before shifting her body slightly.
The servant at her side stirred and woke. His eyes snapped to her and a sleepy smile graced his face as she kissed him passionately, the hand gripping the dagger hilt tightened and suddenly lashed out, driving into the man's stomach. He gasped in pain, and found himself unable to move as she put her free hand to the back of his head and pushed him closer to her, the dagger left the servants stomach, and he whimpered into her grinning mouth as she whispered into his mouth. She pulled away slightly, the servant's silent screams were quiet gurgles now as his hand finally moved to the wound at his stomach. He turned frightened eyes to the princess as she sneered, pulling her weapon up to his neck, she whispered again, her words burning as much pain into the man as the knife wound had, and he squirmed. With a muffled laugh, she drug the knife across his neck and ended his life. His body writhed for a moment in its death-throes, before falling still. Satisfied, she lay down beside the still body, the dagger falling from her fingers as she settled herself to sleep against the dead man's chest.
X
Emira lurched up into a sitting position with a cry. Her eyes – wide and frightened – darted around the tent several times before she let a sob escape her throat. It was followed quickly by several more, and suddenly she had dissolved into tears.
An arm wrapped around her, and she turned slightly to bury her face in the rough material the person wore, one hand curling part of the material around it several times. The person holding her gently rubbed her back, murmuring soothing words in several different languages until her sobs had died to just tears sliding silent tracks down her face. Slowly, the arm around her left her back, and two hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her away from the material she hid against. One hand left her shoulder, and fingers slid under her chin, tilting her head up until her water-filled blue eyes met calm brown ones
"Emira?" a voice questioned "Are you alright?" she sniffed, freeing her hand from the persons clothes to wipe at her eyes. Once free of tears she saw that the one holding her was Haji, and his face was set into a worried frown.
"I saw her," She gabbled "I saw her. She killed someone. She was performing a ritual or something. She killed him!" her voice had raised in pitch slightly, though it was still quiet. Haji shook her gently, silencing her panicked speech
"Who did you see, Emira?" he asked "Who killed someone?"
"Princess Chione." She whispered her voice barley audible. Haji looked worried, his eyes scan her fear filled face. Sensing she wasn't lying to him, he released her, and stood
"Stay here," he ordered her, before remembering she couldn't walk with her broken leg anyway "I'm going to get Ardeth." She nodded mutely, her eyes not really seeing him, her hands went up to hide her face, and as Haji hurried from the tent, he heard her crying.