The Royal feud✅

[4] J A W A D

"You're overthinking things, Amira." chances of getting caught by Khadijah increases the longer you hold a conversation with her, she has a manipulative way of deriving information from the one she wants to. I'd have told her how I come to know about her health, but I want to keep the unsaid promise I made to the young lady.

"I'm not over thinking, Amir, she told you." Khadijah looks hurt as she talks, "she broke my promise, and she isn't loyal, she-"

"I forced her to tell me when I saw her approach your room with a medicine in her hand." I can't allow any more word to be said against her. All the nerves in my body propel me to protect her name before I can think properly.

"Oh..." she relaxes a little then faces the door in front of her, "I don't know her name, but I'll surely find it out... now." The smile on Khadijah's lips tells me she is up to no good, I know very well she is cooking up another plan of hers.

"Okay." I fold my arms behind me. "I'll take my leave now." We ambulate towards the door. Khadijah opens the door and I take a step forward.

"It was nice having you in my chamber."

"One more thing princess," her eyes scan my face as she anticipates what I'm about to tell her, her slim light skinned fingers tickles the door handle. Her whole height if traced to mine will fall at the level of my chest; she's tall, but not as tall as I'm. "Don't hide it from me when you're ill, I'll be willing to help."

Her eyelids lower and the small smile on her lips gently unfold, disappearing from her radiant face. "Okay." She says lowly. I wave her a little, then she closes her door. I know not what makes the princess sad, but I hope she's okay.

****

I pull the hood over my head, and then I stride towards the kingdom market. Today I'm without Aqwa. I always take survey around the market-which is the most crowded area in the kingdom. I take surveys of the welfare of the citizen, but I haven't done that since I returned from pilgrimage.

I hide my real appearance and relate with the citizens like one of them, to see what is really going on in the kingdom. I don't trust the reports of the royal court, they may be wrong sometimes. Zayd is the one to do this, but he's too busy chasing wealth and power to care about the welfare of the people.

It is midday and the rays of the sun are fully stretched, I walk slowly through the boisterous market, slowly taking all my observations in. I intend to visit about ten stalls to ask the vendors some pending questions.

I look towards my left and see a man selling fruits, the tents over his head is torn at different points, not serving its purpose of protection. I take light steps toward his stall.

"Salam alaykum, welcome, I have different type of fruits to sweeten your taste bud," he rambles, dusting the fruits with the black clothing on his hand. He then places the clothing over his shoulder.

"Walaykum salam," I reply. The hood I'm wearing covers my eyes, so no one will be able to make out that it is the Amir standing before them. Even if they did, only a few of the citizen knows me facially.

"How much does the apple goes for?" I pick one out of the red apples arranged obliquely on his stall, feeling its weight in my palms.

"The apple will go for 2 dinars."

"Why 2 dinars... Why has the price increased?" I play along like a real buyer to get a seed of information from him.