Hearts On Fire

12: Conveyance

She felt trapped, in a jungle full of monsters that were aimed at sucking up the little blood she had in her. She sat in the living room as silently as she could, until it was time for Maghrib prayer and the women came for her. She was glad to see that Jamila and two of her cousins came back for her. They were taken to a room, and there they both prayed and ate the food brought for them. She wanted to speak with Ammi, about what Mama Fulani had spoken to her about, but she knew what exactly Ammi would say.

'May be she doesn't mean what she said, Fatima Zarah. Just keep on praying and always be at your best character. Living in the midst of the royalties is totally different from living a normal life.' That would be Ammi's exact words even if she were to speak to her about what Mama Fulani had said, and she saw no reason at calling her knowing what she would say.

They ate the food silently and one of the maids came into the room, "Gimbiya Fatima Zarah, Mama Fulani has ordered for you to be taken to your husband's house. The cars will be ready in the next thirty minutes, you're to leave alone. All your friends will be taken back home too."

She didn't know what she was to feel, elated or sad? Happy that she wasn't going to live together with this Mama Fulani or whatever it was her name or sad that she was going to be locked up with that idiotic human bieng coated in the flesh of Al-mustapha. She mused at the name she referred to as, 'Gimbiya' she had said, and it meant princess. Even though she hated the royal traditions, she couldn't help but fantisize about the name she was called with and the respect and bows she had recieved ever since she came into the hours a few hours ago.

Jamila sat beside her and tapped her shoulder slowly, "Fatima Zarah I don't know how this happened but I'm so glad. You need to see how Barr. Aliyu was agitated when he heard about your wedding, he called me today and from the way his voice sounded I'm afraid if he didn't cried." Fatima Zarha couldn't help but laugh.

So Barr. Aliyu thought she was really into him or she had noticed all the signs he had been flashing at her? She was sorry but not sorry, even though she hated Al-mustapha with passion, she could still choose him one million times over Aliyu. Not that he wasn't handsome, but he just wasn't among the list of men she wanted.

She chuckled softly and spoke, "Please if you get the chance to have a talk with him again, tell him that I'm sorry I haven't invited him for the wedding. But seriously Jamila, that man really thought I would fall for his not so charming smiles and the attendance he signs for me?" They both laughed and her two cousins joined the conversation.

Like the maid had told them, a single car was there, and Jamila and her friend were first ushered out to be taken home. Fatima Zarah wondered where the car she would be taken home with would emerge from. She wanted to scream when she was taken to Mama Fulani's private living room and there sat Al-mustapha, he was alone as well.

She sat down away from him and ducked her head down, fiddling with the end of her thobe. Will all this just end and she could finally rest? She hadn't spent the whole 24 hours of today but it felt as if she had spent a whole year in a few years. She was exhausted beyond measures. Mama Fulani came out of no where and she sat down on a chair that looked like a throne.

"Al-mustapha, Fatima Zarah, you are wedded today just like Islam has ordered us to. You two might not know what the tradition entails, in this palace, because none of you spent the required time to know that. Tomorrow morning, I'll send two maids to collect the white linen I've ordered to be taken to your home..." Fatima Zarah lifted up her head and she quickly ducked her head down when her eyes fell on Mama Fulani's. She wondered what the white linen was for, and didn't want what she was thinking of to be true.

"White linen for?" Al-mustapha asked, and the angry look Mama Fulani flashed him was enough to tell him that it wasn't Ummah active on her. He had to follow whatever rules she had set today, unless he wanted to get into the wrath of the mightly Queen and Princess of the royal emirate. The sultanate palace.