I Shall Rewrite the Stars

Chapter 24

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With the first rays of dawn, our plan is settled, and as our new ally’s part ways to prepare, Juba and I are left in a tense silence. I know he is upset with me, and rightfully so. I would have felt the same if it were him, who’d crept off in the night.

Still, his silence is maddening. Why won’t he speak to-

“What exactly possessed you to flee from my arms, toward a man who’d meant to kill us both?” Juba asks, his voice as cool as his glare.

“I told you many times that I did not believe Aakesh to be a true threat to us,” I try, flinching when the glare intensifies.

Swiping my hand into his own, Juba pulls me down the hall, then another, and finally into the room we’d shared last night. Before the mat-door has fallen back into place, I find my back against the wall, and Juba’s arms on either side of me.

“Your gut feeling was lucky this time. But what if it hadn’t been?” he seethes. “What if he’d followed through with his intent? You would have died, Selene!”

“Oh?” I ask, uncaring for his tone. “I knew that you would stir not long after I left, Juba. I knew that you would hear me if I screamed.”

“And if I’d been too late to save you?”

I try to look away, knowing that he will despise my answer, but Juba takes my chin between his fingers before I can. Holding my eyes, Juba’s dark gaze flickers between enraged and fearful.

“Tell me you wouldn’t have played the happy sacrifice, so that I might live,” he begs.

“I…I know myself well,” I say. “If the worst were to befall us, you would almost certainly survive! But I-”

“In such a circumstance, you expect that I would abandon you? That I would save myself knowing you would die?”

“I-”

“I’ve tried to get closer to you, to be more honest with you—to let you see and hear the things that no one every should! And this is your response?”

I hadn’t thought about it like that. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I did what I believed was best for everyone—and at no point did I hear the spirits whisper their forewarnings. At no point did you step in, despite having been close by. Never did I feel myself to be in any true danger!”

“A life can be ended in the blink of an eye,” Juba breathes, dropping his forehead to my shoulder. “If he’d changed his mind, you were too close. I never could have stopped him in time.”

“At the very least, if such had occurred, you would have had ample time to run-”

“You think I would have left you in this place—to them—to whatever they might have done with you?” Juba jerks back, his teeth bared. “If you really lived in Roma in our first life, then you should know better!”

I shiver against the visions that flood my mine. In Roma, as I was meant to learn, even death cannot spare a person. Their body is abused once their souls has left it—mutilated and displayed at the whims of their executioners!

It is a terrible fate, deprived of all mortal dignity. One that Roma forced upon hundreds in the future I foresaw, including my poor younger brother…

“Forgive me,” I whisper.

“So easily?” He tsks. “Then you’ll do something just as reckless, again.”

“I must learn to trust my instincts, Juba. You cannot fault me for something that you do, yourself.”

“I’ve barely survived learning to hone this skill. If you’re determined to do the same, I fear I won’t be able to sleep peacefully for quite a while.”

“The spirits of the moon and sea watch over me. I will be fine.”

“A blade’s swing is far faster than a spirits warning.”

I heave a sigh. “We will not find compromise on this, will we?”

“You’re the first thing in my life that I’ve wanted to protect. If you have any hopes that I will agree with what you did, or the plot you and Aakesh outvoted me on, then I’m afraid I must disappoint you.”

“And I shall continue to disappoint you, for I feel very much the same, Juba. I want you to live. I want to see you smile—to see you freed from the burdens Gustavian has tormented you with. I will do anything to secure a future where you are truly happy-”

“Then have more of a care for your safety. In all my life, I’ve never felt happiness until I met you, Selene. If something terrible were to befall you, you will take my heart when you go.”

“If you were to fall before me…should I send my heart off with you?” I ask.

Juba’s response is instant. “Of course not.”

“Then promise me, if the worst is to come, that you will find a way to be happy again—as I know you would wish for me.” I pull back a bit, smiling at the frown on Juba’s lips. “Selflessness can be difficult sometimes, can’t it?”

Stepping back, he relents. “It seems so.”

Parting to help with preparations for our departure, Juba is quick to find me once the sun breaks over the mountain peaks. With his men set to follow a ways behind, Aakesh grins at Juba, as I sit just behind him atop his camel.

“You’ll protect her with your life,” Juba demands, resting his palm against my leg. “I’ll have your head elsewise.”

“Such a devoted husband,” Aakesh snickers. “Though I rather enjoy the position of looking down on you. You’d make a fine servant-”

“Stop it,” I snap. “Juba is not a man to be easily dismissed, Aakesh. You may dislike him all you please, but I will not stand to hear you insult him.”

“A thousand apologies,” Aakesh says. “For you, I will spare your dear husband’s feelings.”

“How generous,” Juba spits, then says softer to me, “Be careful, Selene. I won’t allow you from my sight. If the worst happens, run. I will intervene.”

“I know,” I say, suppressing a laugh when a flash of surprise crosses his face. “I know you will find a way to save me, Juba. Always, I will have faith in you.”

The slightest dusting of pink crosses his cheeks, before Aakesh clicks his heels and the camel hauls us forward. I gasp, throwing my arms around the man, and a groan tears from my lips. Already my stomach is in knots.

“You can only save her if I don’t first,” Aakesh laughs, urging the camel into a run.

“You…are cruel,” I moan.

“Your husband irritates me.”

“You instigate him.”

“His breathing instigates me.”

I frown. You are…childish, for a…a man of the cloth.”

“I participate in my family trade with pride.” Glancing back, Aakesh grins. “But I never officially took any vows. Instead, I choose to be a brahmin unique unto myself. May the great spirits judge me kindly.”

I try to laugh, but it fades into a groan. Aakesh begs my forgiveness, for such a pace is our best bet at catching up to Cearion. I readily forgive him, though I wish for all the world that I could travel without feeling ill.

Or at the very least that it was Juba I cling to, in such a time of embarrassing weakness.

Over the long hours we ride, I keep said man close in my thoughts. He’d been less than pleased with the plan Aakesh suggested last night.

‘He knows and trusts me,’ Aakesh had argued. ‘If I bring Selene to him, promising that we will corner her when she least expects it, he’ll let his guard down.’

‘And if he says to just finish the job on the spot?’ Juba demanded. ‘Even if you intervene, there is no assurance that she’ll be able to get away fast enough.’

‘Prioritize freeing Cearion,’ I’d said. ‘Once his binds are gone, he will see to it that I am safe. Not even Cyrus could prevent that.’

‘The boy I saw didn’t look a threat to anyone but himself,’ Aakesh had scoffed, quickly flinching under my glare.

‘Cearion is heir to the throne of Kemet—a fierce warrior and pharaoh in his own right! Never speak down on him again.’

While Aakesh set to begging forgiveness, Juba had snickered under his breath. And though he was still very much upset with me, for just a moment, I could see the adoration in his eyes.

“I see smoke,” Aakesh says, as the last haze of twilight gives way to darkness overhead.

Daring a peek around him, I spot a waft of black smoke billowing toward the cloud-less sky. “Is it them?” I ask.

“I’d bet my life on it.” Looking around, Aakesh slows us. “They say these dunes resemble the pyramids of Kemet. Is that true?”

Wandering the valley between high, sloped mounds of sand, I frown at them. “These are far too small and curved, to be akin to our pyramids.”

Aakesh chuckles. “Forgive our humble dunes their arrogance, then.”

The closer we come to the spot from which the smoke rises, the harder my heart clenches. I have always feared General Cyrus. The man loomed taller than Father, with short black hair and endless eyes to match. He was always bulky for a tutor; intimidating in a way that left people silent when he passed by.

If only we’d known the truth: that he’d earned such an air not as a warrior of Kemet, but as a dog of Roma.

“How should I act?” I ask. “I spent little time around Cyrus.”

“How ever he will expect you to act,” Aakesh replies. “I imagine that to be a frightened rajkumari, desperate to be reunited with her elder brother under the protection of his trusted tutor.”

“The thought of treating that scum with any form of respect, makes my stomach churn—far more so than it already does!”

Aakesh laughs. “Endure for just a while longer, until my brothers are in position. When they give the call, we will attack.”

“You should know now, that there will be no convincing Cearion to flee. Once he understands the situation, he will insist on joining in the fight.”

“And we’ll be better off for it.”

“Because you will need all the help you can get…” I cringe against the shame welling inside. “Forgive me for my lack of aid. I despise being the only one who must run.”

“You willingly place yourself in the height of danger, yet berate yourself for having to fall back once the fighting begins?” Aakesh shakes his head. “We all have a part to play in life, Selene. Yours, in this instance, is to get that monstrous wretch’s guard down. Ours shall be to finish the job.”

“Am I wrong to wish that I could do more?”

“Of course not. This time, your role will be mighty but small. Next time, you may be the difference between victory and defeat.”

“And if such an event does not occur?”

“I fear your life will be chalked full of unfortunate opportunities. There may be many times when all you can do is run and cower. But there will come a day when you stand before your enemies as their greatest of threats. And by the end of the battle that follows, I know you will have found a way to outshine us all.”

It is both terrifying and inspiring to think of such a day. “You truly believe that I can be of such great importance?”

“Already you are taking on a larger role than you had when Kemet fell,” Aakesh says, slowing us further. “Then, all you could do was run. Now, you play the vanguard, charging into the enemy’s stronghold with head high and unafraid. If nothing else, believe me when I say that you have grown stronger, Selene. Very much stronger.”

I wish that Aakesh could see my smile, or that I could properly express my gratitude for his confidence. But for better or worse, the crackling of a fire is growing louder, as are the grumblings of a familiar voice. The time for idle chatter and pleasantries is behind us.

“-when we’re breaking for the night?” Cearion groans. “I don’t even know where we are at this point!”

“But you know full well how to follow the stars back to Kemet,” Cyrus stresses, his deep voice laced with annoyance. “Now quiet down and I’ll spare you a bit of meat and ale.”

“Untie me and we can share it like normal-”

“Before you use that inhuman speed of yours, to outrun both I and my camel. I think not, Highness.”

“Have I come at a bad time?” Aakesh asks, and I hear Cyrus stand, the sound accentuated by the swish of a blade freed from its sheath.

“Did I forget something when I left you?” Cyrus growls.

“Not at all,” Aakesh says, flashing me the slightest glance. I recognize the cue. It is time for me to act. “I just-”

“General Cyrus?” I gasp, poking my head to the side, where I can clearly take in the traitor. Imposing as ever and cloaked in black, the man registers surprise as I throw myself from the camel and run to him. “Oh, he really did know how to find you!”

“Selene?” Cearion whispers, as I throw my arms around Cyrus.

“The maharaja was right—I can’t believe he was right!”

“You’ve been to see the maharaja?” Cyrus asks, hesitantly setting his arm across my back.

I smile, keeping my head bowed. Just as Juba predicted, mentioning my visit with the maharaja seems to have put Cyrus on edge. For he knows that, without the maharaja’s blessing, I could not have left Pataliputra.

It will pose a great problem for Cyrus, if not all of Roma, should I be blatantly killed now.

“Tell me, is my brother with you?” I cry, pushing myself back to meet Cyrus’ eyes. “He is, isn’t he? Father swore that he’d entrusted Cearion to you!”

“He-”

“Selene!” Cearion shouts over the sound of bursting ropes.

Cyrus curses, stepping aside as my brother flies into his place. Bared arms red and marred with rope-burns, Cearion hefts me off my feet, crushing me to his chest in the tightest of hugs.

And for a moment, I forget everything save for the feel of his breaths on my shoulder, and the thump of his heartbeat beneath my hand. Because Cearion is still alive—he is really still alive!

Tears flood my eyes, seeping down to soak his brown cloak as I am set on my feet.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” Cearion chuckles, swaying me gently, like he did when I was small. “I’m so glad you’re alright, Leanie.”

“I feel the same,” I say, stepping back with a smile. “Helios and Ptolemy are well, too. We were separated, but I know they’re okay. They must be!”

“You three escaped Kemet, together? What of Mother and Father? Did they…”

Whatever look takes my face, it must speak for me, for Cearion’s shoulders drop, and a rare look of pain crosses his face.

“Both of them?” he whispers.

“Forgive us,” I beg. “Their final order was to run. We couldn’t dare disobey it.”

The last word is still on my lips, when I am drawn in for yet another crushing hug.

“You three must have suffered so much,” Cearion breathes, forcing his head high when he pulls away. “But it’s okay, now. Cyrus and I are headed to seek the help of our allies. Once we meet up with them, we’ll form some plan of attack and fight to reclaim Kemet! And when our kingdom knows freedom again, I will have avenged our parents, Selene. I swear it.”

“I know you will,” I say. “But tell me, to which allies are you fleeing toward?”

“Did Father not tell you? He ordered that we seek out the pharaoh of this land, in a city called Pataliputra. I think his name is…”

“Ashoka?”

“Yeah, that’s it! His name is Ashoka Indrira!”

***