Prince from Paradise | ✔

XIX. Blood Soaked Bodies

Rabiya

The wooden wagon buckled against the uneven, bumpy roads, winding through the darkness and a sleet of dewdrops, splashing from the wheel, rickety and old. Her body swayed with the rhythm of the wagon, a rickshaw led by a thin, emaciated man who's skin wrinkled to the test of time.

Dark brown skin muddy with ashes and mud, a symbol of his class among the elite military generals. He was only a slave to his masters, a liability of war. Under the fragile, torn skin laid a man with an identity lost to even him, laid an empty, hallow soul who knew nothing but what was told.

Rabiya felt pity for the toll of war everyone had to pay, a life tax that drowned in the blood and tears of others.

A bunch of rowdy, stoic soldiers accompanied them in surrounding rickshaws. Adar and Rabiya shared one with the general and his right-hand man, an uncomfortable silence stretching between them. The general narrowed his eyes at Adar, dark with suspicion and fueled by his instinct to manipulate Adar into a pawn.

Rabiya knew that look well. She remembered it stark against Aunt Tania's visage.

The general suspected foul play between the two, and he was determined to break through their shields and armors to shatter their resolve to pieces until they would be nothing but another game for the tactics of war. A cold, taunting breeze kneaded down her back, a warning.

She shivered, cradling her arms around herself as the rickshaw crossed a trail of highs and lows. A small yelp escaped her lip when the wooden wagon of the rickshaw jolted in the air, her body sliding in pure terror. The tendrils of fear slithered around her shaking form until warm hands gripped her waist, pushing her against a hardened chest, the familiar scent of wood touching her senses.

Adar caught her.

The general's cracked, thin lips quirked into a smirk. "I see you focus all your attention on this girl," he commented, cocking his head to the side. "What is an unmarried man like you doing with a humble, pretty girl like this?"

Perhaps it was the tone in which he spoke, but the general's tone hid underlying threats, a sheer message of who he'd attack first if they betrayed his trust, more specifically the plans the general had for their village if Adar and Rabiya turned out to be crooks. In their country, men and women had only one function in life, and it was to continue their legacies.

There was no reason for Adar's closeness if he was not betrothed to her. Shame burned her, but the trembling horror of the powerful aura of the man before them frightened her more. The general wanted something from Rabiya, whether to dominate or humiliate her she was not sure.

Adar's grip tightened on her waist, pulling her towards his side. "I have my reasons," he stated, simply, removing his hands. "Reasons that only stay between us."

A spark entered glowing coal eyes like a beast hidden in the mysterious woods. "Oh?" he feigned surprise. "An overprotective aura as well? Could this village drama be intertwined with your relationship with this girl?"

She felt his body tense behind her, the straining of his muscles and tightened knot in his jaw, eyes blazing with a fire hot enough to burn the general's position to shreds, yet Adar's restraint was like a crown to his head, regal and contained, lips shielding the retort that his tongue begged him to release.

Rabiya could read the anger across his expression. His eyes briefly met hers, softening at the nervous twitch of her body, her shaking hands, and her self-conscious lip bite. Looking through his warm eyes of brown, the soothing color of maple saps, she saw through the window of his soul, saw the need he felt to protect her from his writings, from his ambitious path.