Hearts of Faith

5

"I am going to lose my mind," Zinneera gritted her teeth, mumbling to Safiyya beside her. "If he gives me an order one more time."

Safiyya rolled her eyes, knowing that if their lives had gone very differently, her friend would have made a terrible servant. Zinneera meanwhile, cut the loaf of bread in front of her slowly and menacingly as she glared into the depths of the stranger's head.

"Do I look like I am wearing those plain beige trousers and robes?" She ranted to the crumbling bread and Safiyya sighed, sharpening the arrows and swords in a pile next to her. "No. No I am pretty sure this dress is green. Therefore, do I look like one of his little soldiers? No I do not."

"This conclusion seems a little delayed given the number of days we have spent travelling together."

Zinneera froze at the stranger's voice, whose name she still did not know, and her scowl grew deeper. His men clearly looked up to him and followed his every order like puppies, but call it pride or not, Zinneera refused to call him Malik-al-Sahra (king of the desert) like they did. Really, what kind of arrogance was that?

She decided not to reply, only to make sure that the knife slammed harder on the wooden board perched on her lap as she sliced the bread. Her annoyance was alleviated temporarily at the satisfying crunch of the outer part of the warm loaf of deliciousness.

"I only came to inform you that our destination should be a few more days ride at the latest."

"Thank you Malik-al-sahra." Safiyya smiled kindly behind her and when the man left she jabbed Zinneera hard with her elbow.

"Ow! Safiyya!"

"You are being childish." She muttered, shaking her head. "Can you not see he had no reason to help us, and still with your attitude, he gives you no reaction and takes us somewhere safe we can stay?"

"I know! It is awfully annoying, is it not?

Safiyya groaned and shook her head, mumbling under her breath.

"Look Safiyya, surely he has some ulterior motive. No normal person would drag us all the way to the other side of Al-Hafah, using up water and food and resources, when they could just drop us off at the nearest convenient place."

"Perhaps he just wants information." Safiyya suggested. "From what I gathered, we are, after all, one of the only people to survive, save a few others."

"Perhaps." Zinneera shrugged. "Either way, I am keeping an eye on him. Especially since the incidence a week ago."

Near the beginning of their journey, the group happened to pass the village with the shelter Zinneera and Safiyya had last been in. The stranger decided it would be a good place to stop for the night, so they wandered in. Unbeknownst to the girls, the men had stayed there before.

"Look!" One of them pointed out. "There are candles in there!"

Zinneera had frozen, seeing the same house with the stall in front, except through the tiny windows, one could see two half-melted candles standing on a decaying shelf.

"Indeed." The man had said, his voice not giving away a single thought that might have been festering in him. To Zinneera's great relief, he decided to move on deeper, to the open space they had camped at before, and it was forgotten.

"He would not have found anything." Safiyya shrugged. "But Allah knows how fast my heart was beating at that moment."

Zinneera agreed. And as the men came to get their lunch from the pot in front, which the girls had just taken their share from, Zinneera handed out the cuts of bread quickly. She knew the leader had given her this task on purpose. To bore her. To frustrate her. It was her own fault really, for making an annoyed comment the first time he had ordered her to do the menial task.