❝My love will drown you to the depths of the sea.❞
Furat bin Kiyan, the fleet admiral of Al Andalus, is a spy and a rebel on a mission to kill the caliph of Cordoba and claim the throne for himself. But finds himself in trouble at the hands of Rahaf...
I'm a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my crypresses.
— Fredrick Nietzsche
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"WHERE ARE YOU going?"
It's a question she had expect. It's not a voice she's surprised to hear. If she's to leave the palace at unfavorable hours of the day, she knows she'll be confronted by him. Yet these are the hours of the day she seeks her peace in.
Turning around, Rahaf looks at her interrupter. The dawn sky is still dark and very little light falls on the figure approaching her. But she doesn't need to see his face to know who he is.
"For a horse ride," she replies.
"At dawn?"
"Yes, why?"
Marrar looks at Masruq standing behind her.
"Go and ask Tabrez to accompany you," he orders.
Rahaf knits her brows, displeased hearing at his instructions. "Why?"
"For the same reason you took him when you allowed Ameer Furat to join you for a walk through the city."
His tone gives away his own displeasure that he doesn't attempt to hide.
"That was a different situation. But I'm going alone now. I've my guard with me."
"Another guard wouldn't hurt."
"Tabrez is not my guard," she argues.
"I know. But the Ameer will be at peace knowing his guard is with you."
"General."
Rahaf fixes his eyes. Though she understands him sometimes, other times she wishes he too would understand her and allow her to bend the rules that have become chains at her ankles.
"I don't need an army to follow me whenever I go out of the palace."
But Marrar ignores her and directs to Masruq, "What did I ask you? Go and carry my orders."
Masruq tips his head and leaves. Frustrated at being put under a watch like this, she steps before him.
"Marrar?"
Though Rahaf feels angry at him, she cannot bring herself to speak to him with bitterness. His eyes instantly flick to her upon hearing his name— his name that she has long stopped calling him by ever since he became a general than a friend of her brother.
"Sometimes I need to step out of this world," she says, unable to contain her the emotions in her heart as the tumble off her tongue. "Don't try to keep me a prisoner in this gilded cage. Sometimes just let me forget who I am or where I belong, please."
The deep green of his eyes are set ablaze. They turn warm as his previous hard expression dissolves into one of understanding and affection. Marrar blinks and quickly averts his gaze.
