Heart of Sand

7.

I was lying on a stone slab, my arms and legs were tied to the edges. I shouted out as I saw three hooded men circle me. I couldn't move and and as I turned my eyes, I saw Haz sitting near me his hands were bound by iron, and he was crying as he tried to reach for me. The sultana was sitting on a throne and the sultan stood behind her. They payed me no attention and I felt hot tears roll down my face as Haz looked towards me with pain in his eyes; they'd sealed his mouth shut and he was moving frantically. It was as he made eye contact with me that I saw the dark figure skirt my vision and the glint of metal seared past me but just as suddenly my eyes turned to white light and I screamed in pain.

—

Someone shook me hard. I heard whispers in an accented tongue. I sat up groggily and looked around. The vision had just been a nightmare but as I looked around I felt like I'd just awoken in to another nightmare. I was on the bed in the walless chamber; a soft morning breeze swept past me and the sun was peaking on the horizon. I turned my head to face the woman who'd woken me; Gregga.

"Princess, you were screaming", Gregga said in her thick northern accent.

Gregga was a slave; taken when the sultan had captured the forest kingdoms of the north. She'd told me that the general had assigned her to attending me and from the first time she'd seen me lying on the floor, she'd pitied me enough to tend to me. I had spoken to her warily; but sometime in the past week I'd figured her out; she hated the sultan, despised him after he'd forcibly turned her country from thick forests to one of towering citadels and subjected her people to serve those he put in command. She was in the same position as me and I felt that made us allies, but she was too scared of disobeying the man too.

Gregga had golden hair and it was tied in a plait today. She had odd flesh-toned freckles on her nose and was thinner than anyone I'd ever seen before. She put a tray of food on the bed and rose up, her grey dress hanging limply from her shoulders.

I took the hot bread and ate silently. Over the past week, we'd become used to our new arrangement of her bringing me food and me eating before allowing her to help me bathe. she'd managed to bring me some books too; a few old novels of fairytales. She'd told me they were the only books she'd found in the sea people's language, every other book was written in the desert land's tongue.

"Gregga, what do you think the sultan intends to do with me".

It was always like this that our conversations, however brief, would begin. With me asking a question and hoping that she was in the mood to reply.

Gregga continued to fill a copper tub with hot water and bath salts, I could smell the jasmine from where I sat on the bed. She'd laid out a new gown on the bed too, the colour of a faded gold; she'd taken away the silk skirt and blouse that I'd arrived in the palace with and now only brought me thick gowns that hung loosely off me.

"Give him what he wants princess", she answered, "and he will not hurt you".

I sighed, she always gave me the same answer to whatever question I asked of my fate. Too scared to want to suggest anything else.

"No matter what you say, I will never give him what he wants".

The words were the wrong thing to say, and I saw Gregga purse her lips. I stumbled across an apology quickly, unwilling to let the only person I ever saw shut off from me.

"Tell me about your home lands", I said quickly noting the slight loosening off her shoulders as she looked out at the horizon.

She was always eager to speak of the forest lands, as if talking about her people would bring them back, I pitied her when that hopeful light entered her eyes, wondering if perhaps I'd be the same if I lived long enough. Wishing to see the turquoise seas again and feel the pebbles of the beaches beneath my toes.

"Green", she began as she always did, "everything is green, emerald green leaves, dewy grass and metre wide lilly pads on the lakes, we used to celebrate the greenness of our lands and thank the green goddess for her bounty", Gregga smiled at a memory, "We build our homes on the tops of thick woods and let the beasts have the forest grounds to do with as they pleased, and princess I wish you too could have felt the wind in your face as you ran across the treetop bridges that connected our cities together".

I knew that the forest kings had build their cities on top of the thick woods and that the ground lay bare for animals to roam in, the forest people would only come down from the treetops to hunt or gather water. And through the years, the forest king's had managed to make their homes unbeatable fortresses, the layers of tree bark and shadowy leaves making the cities nearly impossible to locate. Hidden from view completely. No one from the other lands would be able to locate the hidden forest cities unless the kings allowed themselves to be found. Countless people had tried to pinpoint the locations but all they found was tree leaves and wood, no whisper of the forest kingdoms found anywhere. But the sultan had found them I reminded myself, he had known where to look and when the forest kingdoms had slowly come down, hope for the other kingdoms soon plummeted.

"It sounds magnificent Gregga", I smiled but the sadness in my voice was thick.

She didn't seem to realise as she continued, "oh it was, our homes were made like nests, made of leaves and bark twisted around each other to make it strong, and if we looked down from our homes, we'd see the wild beasts fighting far below us in the grass", her face turned dark and I knew what she'd say, "but he burned it all down, he grazed the forest and built stone castles where our cities once stood".

I knew she'd go silent now, and no matter how much I tried to convince her to speak, she wouldn't as if the memory of her home burning as playing itself in her mind again and again. So I shed my clothes and walked towards the sweet smelling copper tub allowing her to perform her duties and find solace in her silence.