The Serpent's Veil

The Moon

"I do," she cried, "You taught me what it means. Please, Rehan, I love you, I did this for you, you have to believe me!"

She couldn't stop herself from running to him.

X

It was well beyond the midnight hour by the time Rehan had returned to the governor's residence. He pulled off his shirt, now drenched with sweat, and stared at his dark reflection in the basin. The edge of his hand still pulsed from where he had knocked her unconscious, the memory of it too horrifying for his skin to ever forget.

His hands clutched the edge of the basin to steady himself. Every movement after she fell at his feet was of a ghost. He was no longer in his own body as he carried her limp form back to the residence. When he finally arrived, he did not know where to put her. In a cell? In his own room? In Yahya's?

Every thought was another knife inside his back. Had she been lying about everything? Was she truly Yahya's and not his? Was Yahya an agent for the Umayyads? Would he betray him like this after 13 years of friendship?

Was every laugh, every smile, every kiss a lie?

He felt like screaming. He felt like dying.

I am king of this empire and you are a slave.

You are a slave.

No. She was the moon. She was water. She was birdsong. She was starlight.

I love you.

How he had longed to hear those words from her. To say them to her.

I'll kill you.

He looked at his hand. For a moment it carried bloodstains, but he blinked, and they disappeared. His eyes shot to the bed where she lay, watching to see if her chest rose with life's breath. He could have killed her.

He had wanted to kill her. Every bone in his body was ready to strike her down like prey. But his mind was screaming for him to stop, begging him.

She is the moon. She is water. She is birdsong. She is starlight. Please, don't do this.

What was worse? That she loved him, and he killed her for it, or she never did, and he killed her for it. He couldn't breathe, could't breathe, couldn't breathe.

Rehan fell to his knees, coughing, struggling to take in any air. His eyes stung with the prick of a thousand needles, but no tears came. What had he done?

X

Yahya lay awake till midnight, despite there being nothing he could do for Khayzuran after arranging her escape. Everything had been carefully planned, caravan masters bribed, guards well armed, and the city asleep, for Khaya to make her silent return to Baghdad. Still, he was nervous. Anything could happen between now and then. It would still be a week until she would be back in the safety of the harem and could send a message.

As the hours droned on his eyes slowly drooped with fatigue and he fell into a light doze. He had no dreams, only racing thoughts, and when his door latch clicked he did not stop to wonder who else it could be this time of the night other than her.

"Khayzuran?" he said, shielding his bleary eyes from the light pouring in from the hall.

"You lying, traitorous bastard!" Rehan screamed as he burst into the room, aiming a punch straight for Yahya's jaw. Yahya's head spun from the impact, and he let out a tendril of power to push Rehan back, to make him freeze, anything.

Rehan did not relent, he seized Yahya by his hair and slammed his head against the bedpost, then pulled him back and punched him again. This time Yahya fell to the ground. He raised his hand, channeled every bit of his power against Rehan.