A Princess for the Witch Doctor (Legends of Rahasia Book 3)

Chapter Sixty-Six

I sit across from Harto, twirling a white jasmine stem, watching Nenek Wulan nap in the noonday sun.

"I've thought about it." I tell him, monitoring Nenek Wulan's breathing. The sultan shifts his position in the chair, splaying his legs out so his feet touch mine.

"And?" He raises a thin eyebrow, dark hair falling over one eye, over his broad shoulder.

"I'll need my fathers' blessing first, before the wedding." I look up then, my honey-sun eyes meeting his. All of Rahasia in my gaze, my intention.

He takes my hands in his, grinning so wide I fear for him. "Love," he whispers, the words unnatural seeming to me. "Arnina." The r's in my name roll of his tongue, the Jiwanese accent thick. He takes my palms and kisses them, laying flowers at my feet. "Now, I finally have the chance to make things right with you."

I trace my fingers along his handprint scar. He shudders as I line my fingers up in the impression, where the goddess of the sea first laid her claim on him.

He turns so that his lips meet my palm, kissing the line leading to my thumb.

I feel his skin, the brown of Jiwa's shores, the beating heart of a true man of his people. My own skin, the product of a Rahasian-Okami mix, a diplomat at birth. A real compromiser.

"You said you'd protect me." He whispers, the words falling, warm with his breath, into my hand. "Will you keep that promise?"

"You and all our people." I tell him, grinning wryly, wondering why I can still bring myself to feel nothing. Perhaps I really do lack love or empathy, just as Zahra said. For myself or others. "Protecting others, it's what a warrior-queen does."

"You'll have an entire Jiwanese fleet bring you back." He tells me, eyes so filled with passion that it hurts me all the more to feel so hollow, like I'm duty-bound. Like I'm placing a gamble with my own flesh and blood. "My future wife must travel in style. Jiwa's queen."

But I've already stopped listening, watching Nenek Wulan as her chest falls and rises in steady breathing.

You told me fairy tales... I wonder. But maybe there was truth in them after all.

Maybe there really is a name in there.

A name lost to time, and a princess in a fairy tale.

***

Readers,

You think she has a plan?

-Sophia