One week later, Marie-Fey blew out of her carriage before her servants could even approach the door. They scrambled to get the stairs into place then ducked out of the way as she snapped her fan open and blazed across the courtyard.
Maanah and Gharam were both there to meet her. Maanah looked so much better, though they both looked rather sick with worry which didn't fade when they saw her expression.
"My Lady," Gharam started and she strode past them.
"Come along," she ordered.
The women of the palace who had come out to see her return stumbled out of the way as she swept up the stairs of the main palace, stormed right through it and drove out the other side, heading for her own palace.
"My Lady, you need to know—" Maanah called as she and Gharam hurried after her.
"We have a lot to discuss, someone call for Zaafira. What an awful return from a trip, having her as my first meeting," Marie-Fey said with a despairing sigh as the doors to her palace were quickly pulled open and she froze.
She was still for a moment, then looked around her to just to double check that she was in fact in her desert home and not somehow magically transported to her home country.
But no. This was her private palace, in the compound of her husband's main home, in his controlled state.
Which made the appearance of Constantine stepping out of one of the parlour rooms all the more confusing.
"Well you're in a chipper mood," he observed, folding his arms.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she replied, and he snorted.
"Charming! Your dear big brother comes all the way across the sea to visit you and that's how you respond?" he said, walking over and holding out his arms.
Marie-Fey glided forwards and wrapped her arms around her brother, more confused than ever.
"I don't understand, why are you here though?"
"I'll explain later, when we're alone," Constantine replied, drawing back, "For now... why the thunderous mood?"
Marie-Fey grimaced. While she was happy to see Constantine, the man did have a way of throwing wrenches in people's plans – whether they be martial engagements or the stopping of a murderous immortal.
"How is it you have come back in one piece and yet Zaydan has not?" Zaafira snapped as she burst into the grand entrance hall.
"Because Zahir tried to stab me and he got in the way," Marie-Fey replied and Zaafira scoffed.
"And you didn't think to move his hand in time?" she cried, storming forwards, glowering at her.
"And take the knife to the throat? That's a damn fine plan now, why ever didn't I think of!"
"You always were a tad slow."
"I see you missed me terribly."
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Constantine said, and they looked at him so see a darkness settle in his eyes as he looked between them. "Did you just say Zahir – which I believe is the name of your husband – attempted to stab you?"
Marie-Fey released an exhausted sigh. "I haven't even had time to bathe yet and things have already become tiresome," she muttered. "Gharam, call for tea. Maanah, good to see you looking so much better, call for Zaydan. Zaafira, Con, go wait in the parlour. I am going to change out of this outfit because I am quite fed up with the damn sand. I shall be with you soon and... well since you're here, I suppose I have to explain everything now. Which is most inconvenient."
YOU ARE READING
Kingdom in The Sand
FantasyMarie-Fey is married to a ghost. At least she might as well be for all she's seen of the man she married two years before. Far from home in a foreign land of endless sand and rich oasis, in a palace filled with women she won't connect with, all she...
