The Sultan and the Storyteller by Lichelle Slater

Nineteen

My head throbbed in dull beats with my heartbeat as I woke. The sun shone through the window and I let out a heavy breath as everything came back to me. I sat up quickly, only to grimace as pain exploded white-hot in my head. I groaned and put my head in my hands.

Behind me, I could hear men’s voices—Zayne and . . . my father?

When I looked over my shoulder, I spotted both of the men standing just inside the door. Father had his staff and—just like I had imagined a couple of days before—the head of the serpent staff looked real, with black scales and red belly instead of gold.

“Is this true?” Zayne was asking.

Father nodded. “It is. I saw her with Kasim myself. He kissed her at the gate last night when he returned her to the palace.”

“But she can’t have . . . done anything. She wouldn’t do that. She loves me.”

Father put his hand on Zayne’s shoulder and shook his head with a solemn expression. “I’m sorry, Zayne, but how could she love a murderer?”

Zayne looked up from whatever made-up parchment my father had given him. “Me? She brought me proof that it’s you.”

“How could it be me, Zayne? I’ve never been in the room when they died. You know that.” Father’s hand tightened on Zayne’s shoulder and the snake stretched for Zayne.

I stood. “What is going on?”

Father stepped back, dropping his grip, and his serpent returned to its golden state. “Shahira. You’re awake. Zayne was just reading this love letter you sent to Kasim.”

Zayne’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t look at me. Did he actually believe my father?

“What love letter? I never sent anything to Kasim.”

“I hold it in my hand, Shahira,” Zayne said despondently. He held it out toward me.

To my horror, it was my handwriting.

I turned in anger to my father. “I already told Zayne your plan to have me killed. Zayne, have him arrested.”

“A second unfaithful wife, Your Majesty. I should have warned you she was in love with Kasim before she volunteered to be your bride, but I had no idea she could be so devious. Especially after the kindness you’ve shown her.”

I shook my head and stepped in front of Zayne to place my hand on his cheek. “Please don’t listen to him. You know the truth. You know he is using magic to manipulate your—”

Zayne pulled away and grabbed my wrist. “Send for the guards.”

“Zayne, this isn’t you.” I tried to pull my wrist away. “Zayne, remember upset you were that you got angry last night? This isn’t your anger, it’s my father’s!”

Zayne looked torn between believing me or believing my father.

I tried not to sound desperate, but my father had already stepped out into the hall and shouted for the guards. “I love you, Zayne. Don’t do this.”

He shook his head. “You have deceived me. This will be justice. I’ll have you executed tonight and then I will marry Jade and start all over.”

My heart sank. I was losing him. I had used my magic without a story before. If I could now, could I summon my tiger and save him? But I froze and couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Captain Nadeem entered and looked between us with surprise. “Your Majesty?”

“Take Shahira to the palace tower. She is to be locked away until her execution tonight.” He shoved me toward Nadeem, who steadied me.

“What are her charges?” he asked.

“Treason. Adultery. Deceit. Take your pick.” His lip twitched in a sneer and he wadded up the letter in his hand and threw it. “To think I actually believed I loved you.”

“Zayne . . .” My words caught and tears filled my eyes. I opened my mouth to speak . . . but couldn’t.

Captain Nadeem held my elbow and I looked at my father.

He smiled cruelly as Captain Nadeem guided me from the room.

This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t part of the plan. This wasn’t in the story!

But it had been. For the man taken to be wed, and the woman left for dead, must fight for their love to conquer the darkness ahead.

How could the story have known Zayne would be marrying someone else and I would be taken to be executed? How could the writer of the story know our lives?

I felt as if someone brushed their hand on my side and pocket, where I felt a sudden weight. I knew, somehow, it was Zayne’s charm. With it came the strong impression that my mother had written Zayne’s childhood story and things were in place that I could get through this. If only I fought for Zayne. I needed to get his necklace to him.

When I arrived at the tower, Father opened the door himself.

Captain Nadeem guided me in.

“Leave us,” Father ordered.

Captain Nadeem gave me a second glance, one that asked if I would be okay, but I looked away from him. He left as he was ordered and I was alone with my father.

“All of this death and hatred so you can have magic?” My throat tightened. “Because you aren’t satisfied with the power you already wield?” I no longer feared his anger. I no longer feared his strength. And he knew it.

“I only manipulate magic,” he answered, his eyes shadowed. “With the ability to use magic freely, I could be so much more. I could be—”

“The sultan?” I glared at him, my hands clenched in fists so tight my nails bit into my palms.

Father’s lip curled in an evil grin. “That is one possibility, I suppose. I was thinking more along the lines of a grand sorcerer.”

“Why?” The word stuck in my throat like an unchewed date.

My father reached out like he would move my hair from my face, but I recoiled from his touch. His lips tightened. “A sorcerer can rule more than a kingdom. And why should women be the only ones with magic?” His lip twitched in a sneer. “You’re so much like your mother.” It wasn’t a compliment.

“Why did you hate us so much?” Tears stung my eyes and I tried to swallow the lump growing in my throat.

“Because your mother had it all and threw it away.” He crossed to one of the four windows of the tower and looked down at the city. “She had magic, riches, and a royal bloodline. She produced two girls who both shared her magic abilities.” He looked back at me and his eyes moved downward, lingering at the red stain on the hem of my skirt from the sands of Sheblom. “She couldn’t provide a son.”

I moved just to make him stop looking at my flaws. “What do you mean a royal bloodline?”

Father met my gaze and heaved a heavy sigh. “Don’t worry, you don’t have the blessings from it any longer. When she moved you two out of the palace with her, she was stripped of it all.”

“Mother was a princess?”

“Yes, daughter of a king across the sea. King White, I believe his name was.”

Thiswas what Zayne meant when he told me I was more important than I could have imagined. He was supposed to marry someone with royal blood. He was supposed to marry me, even when we were children. I rested my hand on the wall to steady myself.

“I am a princess?” I asked, steadying my gaze on the man who was supposed to be my father and protector.

“As I said, not since your mother left the palace with you. She didn’t want you to be raised in the same life she had lived and disavowed everything that had to do with it. She opened an apothecary in town and took you two. Her choice stole everything from me.” A darkness came over him and he growled. “I managed to salvage my own reputation with the sultan in order to maintain my position as the vizier, thus remaining in the palace, but . . . I knew what had to be done with your mother.”

“She took us away from you, away from the palace, away from all of this to keep us safe.” I shook my head. “What else could you possibly take from her?”

“I made her useful.”

Useful.

My breath stopped and my heart sank. As if news of my royal bloodline wasn’t enough, I realized what my father meant by useful. “You—you let me believe all these years that it was my fault.”

Father leaned on his staff. “She was the first of the thirty-nine. A necessary sacrifice. Zayne’s first wife was a missed opportunity or I would have been done with this days ago.”

I put my hand on my chest as if the action would will my heart to beat again. “You murdered her!”

“I love you, Shahira. You are still my daughter, even if you did step in where you shouldn’t have. Jade should have been the fortieth. Now she will fulfil the role she should have accomplished a week ago. She will arrive to marry Zayne, but I will take her life. And then I can finally get rid of Zayne.” Father slammed his staff on the ground and the serpent’s eyes locked on mine. “I take from you your voice. You shall not speak, and thus cannot use your magic to stop me.” He turned, his robes billowing, and crossed to the door.

I blinked, the room coming back into focus. I ran after my father, voicelessly shouting for him to stop. The door slammed shut in my face, leaving behind a hollow echo.

I slammed both of my fists on the wood before collapsing to my knees and let out a soundless wail. My father had killed my mother, used her magic to begin this nightmare, and now he would take away the only thing from me I treasured most in this life—Zayne.