The Zodiacs

7. Odion of Pisces

Zahra rushed through the hall the next afternoon, furiously knocking her knuckles against Akil's door for the third time today. Her eyes scanned the area around her to make sure that nobody else was present in the corridor, but nobody was. Everybody was busy preparing.

Finally, the door's lock turned and its heavy wood pulled backwards, revealing a evidently bothered man from behind. "I'm going to request a room change if you-," but she didn't let him finish, pushing her way into the room and closing the door so nobody would hear the rest of their conversation. "Hey!" He frowned.

"You need to leave," she quickly turned to him, not even bothering to ease into the topic that had kept her from falling asleep after a draggingly painful night.

Akil furrowed her eyebrows at her abrupt statement. "This is my room," he pointed to the floor between them, letting the bizarre confusion overtake the rest of his expression when he blinked at the girl.

"No. I mean, out of the city," Zahra shook her head, dropping her voice to a quiet whisper in case anybody might be able to hear on the other side of the door. "The Pharaoh is putting out an order for all Zodiacs after what happened with Lotus. He's never liked them, and now he has a reason to hunt every one of them down."

"What...?"

"I don't doubt that he's going to look in this palace first, and then move out into the city with soldiers and knights. They're going to strip everybody down to look for the identifying birthmarks," she breathed, her words flying out of her mouth at a magnificent speed. "I can only imagine what he's going to do to them once they're all found. So, you need to go before he announces it to the public and begins the hunt. Does anybody know about you?"

Blinking at her for a long minute, the man seemed to be processing all of the information she threw at him. He looked away in thought before turning to her with a nod. "My neighbors found out once, but they vowed to keep it a secret. I don't think they'd turn me in if they haven't already."

Zahra shook her head, not liking the response. "He's going to be punishing all the people who may know, but don't come out and say it, so I wouldn't put it past anybody."

"What about you?" He asked.

"What about me?"

Akil let his eyes slide down her body with a look of distrusting judgement pulling the corners of his lips down. "How do I know you're not going to turn me in as soon as I try to leave?"

The girl rolled her eyes at his question, not in the mood to talk about unnecessary points that would take away from their time planning. "Why would I tell you if I was just going to turn you in? I could have just told Master Omari about you yesterday, you dimwit."

"Fair enough," Akil nodded.

"Anyway, I've been thinking about it all night. The Bintyani Celebration is tonight and we're all going to have to report for duty in the ballroom. You can slip out while everybody is busy with that and find somewhere outside the city's walls to stay for the night, but then you have to get as far away as you can."

"What about the logs? They'll notice if I don't log in."

Shaking her hands in front of her, Zahra dismissed the single worry completely. "I'll log you in while you leave so you have the most time."

Akil hesitated for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip while considering the entire plan that she was formulating for him. They both stood in a silence that made the anxious tapping of Zahra's foot on the floor much more pronounced than any other sound in the room.

Finally, the taller man turned to narrow his hazel eyes at her. "Why are you helping me?" Akil asked, looking much more serious than she'd seen him in the two weeks that they'd known before. It dramatically shifted the air in the atmosphere around them to accommodate the curiosity in his words. She wasn't sure if that was his Aquarius sign at work, or if it was just clues she'd learned to pick up on in conversation. "I mean, you say you're not a Zodiac so why does it matter to you whether I'm safe or not. What makes you care so much?" His tone grew defensive.