Chapter 35

“They have been in there for more than two hours,” Sybelien remarked, impatiently.

Sybelien, Anseyla, Rhaseris, Anjatta, and Shinta stood in front of a side-door to the storage house into which Jabbit and Evanis had disappeared.

“It’s silent inside,” Rhaseris pointed out. “Maybe it’s now safe to look for them.”

“If you think so, open the gate and go in,” Anseyla suggested.

“Me?” Rhaseris squeaked. “You are her sister; you go.”

“You bunch of sissies!” Shinta scoffed and pulled the door wide open.

They looked inside.

“I can’t see anything,” Rhaseris whispered. “A row of stacked crates is blocking the view.”

“It’s still eerily silent,” Anjatta mentioned.

“Maybe they left already through another door,” Shinta opined.

“No,” Rhaseris objected. “I know Jabbit is here. Besides, the storage house has no windows but I can see light shining through the gaps between the crates.”

“Sybil, honey bunny, you could make yourself invisible and search for them,” Anseyla suggested with a grin.

“I’m too afraid what I’ll find will match what I’ve had to listen to at night,” Sybelien answered.

“Dammit, if I spend any more time in your company I’ll become a sissy, too!” Shinta huffed.

The tall Ibanee went inside, turned the corner at the end of the row of stacked crates and disappeared. The others waited.

After a little while, Shinta reappeared.

“I found them... , “ she said, “ ... I found Evanis and Jabbit, I mean.”

Sybelien’s brows rose to her hairline as she looked at Shinta. The Ibanee woman’s gaze was undirected and her voice strangely monotone.

“Are you alright, Shinta?” Anjatta worriedly asked.

“I think she is in shock,” Rhaseris surmised.

“Oh come on, Shinta, it can’t have been that bad,” Anseyla prodded.

When Shinta didn’t reply but wordlessly stared into the distance, Anseyla hurried past her and vanished around the corner of stacked crates. The others waited. They breathed out in relief when Anseyla returned and she was giggling.

“Come with me,” she whispered. “You have to see this!”

Anseyla walked up to the corner again and Sybelien, Anjatta, and Rhaseris followed her. Shinta was still somewhere far away. At the end of the row of crates, Anseyla halted. She faced her three friends and held her forefinger against her closed lips, then she snuck around the corner. The scene they encountered as they silently followed Anseyla was well worth the precautions. Evanis, illuminated by candles and oil lamps placed on some nearby crates, sat on a chest and Jabbit stood behind her. Her eyes were closed and on her face was an expression she had never shown to anyone ever before - bliss. She was literally purring while Jabbit braided the long, shiny tresses of her raven-black hair. After a moment of silent observation, the intruders snuck away again. Shinta was waiting outside the building.

“Are you feeling better?” Anjatta asked.

“Yes, I was just surprised,” Shinta curtly answered.

“That was the funniest thing I’ve seen in forever!” Anseyla giggled. “I can’t wait to tease Eva with it. Maybe I...”

“Don’t!” Shinta cut her off then she left without another word.

“What’s with her?” Anseyla asked, watching Shinta leaving.

“Sometimes you are a bloody idiot, Ansa,” Sybelien judged and followed Shinta.

“What did I do?” Anseyla asked the two remaining women.

“If you were my girlfriend, I’d be angry at you, too,” Rhaseris answered and then she left as well.

Anseyla stared at Anjatta. “Please, tell me; what did I do?”

“What you showed us wasn’t funny,” Anjatta answered.

“But that was Eva not just some normal...” Anseyla trailed off as she saw the look of disapproval on the Ibanee princess’ face.

“If you tease your sister about it, you may never see that expression on her face again,” Anjatta said. “Is that what you want?”

For a moment, Anseyla just stared at Anjatta before she lowered her gaze and answered, “Sybil is right, I’m an idiot.”

“No, you’re no idiot,” Anjatta replied. “You resemble your sister more than you think and she isn’t an idiot, either. Did someone ever braid your hair?”

“My mom often did it for me when I still was a little girl,” Anseyla whispered. “I loved it.”

“Your sister loves it too, it seems,” Anjatta said and smiled.

Anseyla sighed and nodded. “I think Sybil is really angry at me. Even worse, I disappointed her,” she mourned but suddenly her face lit up. “I should ask your little niece to talk to Sybil. Maybe after Nahseyra talks to her, Sybil will forgive me as well.”

The dark-skinned Ibanee princess didn’t reply; she only blushed in response.

The little girl couldn’t keep up with his speed so Agon var Dosha carried his daughter as he ran through the corridors of the palace. Reaching his destination, he ripped open the door and rushed into the darkened chamber. He stared at the two people lying motionless and quiet in the two beds of the room; a young woman and a little boy. He slowly walked to the bedside of the young woman and looked at her closely.

“Momma will become healthy again,” his daughter whispered in his ear.

Agon sighed in relief as he watched the peaceful expression on his wife’s sleeping face. It was a short time later, Nahseyra and Agon stood at the bedside by his son, when someone knocked on the door frame.

“Excuse me, my Prince,” the old, sickly-looking slave by the door whispered. “But her Majesty, your mother, is awake and asking for you.”

Agon looked at his daughter and smiled. “Couldn’t you have haggled for a little delay until God Jabbit healed your granny?”

Nahseyra pouted. “I told you I’m bad at haggling.”

“Then you better learn fast,” he replied with a grin. “A queen has to haggle a lot.”

Luwani var Dosha looked gaunt and she was coughing when Agon opened the door to her bedroom but she sat upright in her bed and her eyes were clear and focused as she regarded her son.

“When I didn’t hear from your sister, I was certain I was going to die,” Luwani said. “But I feel much better now. My servants informed me everyone in the palace is getting better. They also told me you commanded an army on a hunt for the Nameless Son. Did he surrender to you or did your sister finally convince him to spare our lives?”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, mom,” Agon replied.

Luwani waited but he didn’t say any more.

She glared at her son. “Agon, answer my question!”

“No, the Nameless Son didn’t surrender to me. The only time I saw him was when he raised the dead Ibanee soldiers Evanis Danjala and her Imperial Alorian Guard had slaughtered. Now, because of me, more than a hundred dead Ibanee serve in her Army of the Damned. She told me that no matter what I do my sword will never scratch his skin and I believe her.”

Luwani paled. “And Anjatta?”

“I don’t know how Anjatta tried to convince him but she told me she failed because she is too much like you,” he answered. “I guess that means she either tried to manipulate, mislead, lie or cheat the Nameless Son because that’s what you would have done, isn’t it mother?”

Luwani paled even more. “But I feel much better ... how ... why?” She stammered.

“Your six-year-old granddaughter saved you. My little daughter made a deal with the Nameless Son.”

“Deal? What deal?” Luwani gasped.

“Nahseyra saved our family and she will pay the price,” Agon answered. “She calls him God Jabbit and he wants Nahseyra to become the Queen of Ibanee. Not by marriage and not in a distant future but very soon, as far as I understood.”

“Nahseyra the Queen of Ibanee? That is ... it’s impossible ... but if... , “ Luwani stopped and her eyes opened wide. “That is marvelous! The Nameless Son gifted us with a miracle. Your little daughter will become the Queen, Agon! Of course, she will need advice...”

“Shut up!” Agon thundered. “Nahsie was able to save us because she isn’t like you and I pray to every god I know, even to the Nameless Son, that she will never become like you. The first time I see you whispering into my little girl’s ear I will do what Jabbit didn’t; I will kill you, mother.”

Luwani speechlessly watched as her son turned around and left, slamming the door behind him. For a while, she just stared at the closed door but then she looked at the parchment roll in her hand. The notice was small enough to have been carried by a pigeon but the news the note contained was enormous and very dangerous to everything Luwani var Dosha wanted for the future of her family and her homeland Ibanee. She picked up a small bell from her night table and rang for a servant.

“Bring me parchment, feather, and ink. You’ll wait outside until I call for you again and then you’ll deliver some messages.”

When Jabbit and Evanis finally left the storage house, she didn’t even try to suppress her smile. Six orderly lines of patch-men, each line counting twenty-four men, saluted their Commander.

“I have a company of patch-men,” Evanis proudly announced. “That’s enough to conquer Ibanee. With a battalion, I’d conquer the world.”

“What do you want to do with the world?” Jabbit asked.

Evanis grinned. “I’d release the world and then conquer it again.”

“Like a fisherman who throws a small fish back into the sea?”

Evanis laughed out loud. “You’re too funny and you don’t even try very hard.”

Next, their friends approached them.

“It’s good to see you in such a joyful mood, Eva,” Anseyla noted, immediately catching angry glares from the other women. “What?” She defended herself, “I’m simply happy that my sister is happy!”

“Boss, we’re no longer surrounded,” Sybelien intruded, diverting attention from her girlfriend. “The Ibanee army retreated.”

“And I want to apologize and thank you for giving the shell back to me,” Anjatta said, her gaze directed to the ground.

“And I want to build a shrine for a black rabbit.” Rhaseris declared. “I think the shrine will become quite popular - unless my Lord decided to only heal the royals and their servants living in the palace, of course.”

“I haven’t decided, yet, but Evanis just told me she needs a bigger army,” Jabbit replied in passing as he walked toward Shinta, who stood farther back.

His casual remark abruptly redirected the women’s attention from Jabbit toward Evanis.