Kambi's chamber glowed with a pale yellow light, giving it a mournful look. The day was windy but the sun was up and scorching. White curtains breezed softly around her carved ivory bed, carrying the faint perfume of orchids and a deep smell of ritual incense. A sacred candle carved like the moon, made from rare efilia wax, burned eternally by her door to wade away bad ghosts.
Princess Kambi sat in the center of it all, still as rock. Her demeanor spelled royalty, head to toe. She was draped in pure, ceremonial white. The drapes flowed in ripples around her feet, every layer stitched with the delicate precision and otherworldly embroidery. Not an inch of her albino skin was bare; the drapes wrapped her like mist, save for her face. Her eyes glowed golden, beautiful - cold.
Only one person had ever seen beyond those eyes.
Her attending servants moved carefully, fastening the last of her veil, painting a final line of gold across her brow. This was her last ritual before the Osimiri ceremony. The ceremony was only a few hours away. The days and moons had blurred up for this day. But she felt nothing. The only thing she wanted to feel was Dalhatu. She closed her eyes and imagined her long cold fingers at trickle down the small of her back, as she melted into her embrace.
Goosebumps.
She shivered.
"My… my Princess, are you feeling well… Should… should we shut the windows?"
She blinked back into reality, "I… I am fine. Please go on." She sounded even less convincing.
The heavy doors creaked. Cheta stepped inside.
He looked as beautiful as ever - his high cheekbones, his perfectly braided hair, his poise. The White-Eyed guards at the entrance fought with everything they have, not to lose control. As usual, he was tall, bold and strikingly beautiful. But there was something in his face that betrayed him. A tension in his jaw. A glint of water at the corners of his eyes that had no place there. Kambi caught on immediately.
Something was wrong.
Her gaze narrowed. She raised a single, jeweled hand, and her servants immediately stepped back, bowing before quietly slipping out, the rustle of their skirts fading into silence.
When they were alone, her voice was soft but edged. "What has happened?"
Cheta closed the doors behind him. He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "The Gamma and the White-Eyed are in the slave quarters."
"WHAT!!" Her heart gave a hard, cold beat.
"Why?"
"They are looking for… an unbranded slave." He hesitated, his gaze flicking to hers. "The child."
"I… I… I am sorry Princess. I… I was too caught up with the affairs of your Osimiri ceremony that I had not been paying attention to…"
"Oh… oh Great Goddess… Cheta… Cheta… you have killed me! You have killed me oh How could you not have known about this beforehand?!" Her voice broken in the harsh whispers.
"I… I…"
"Wha…what do we do now? Can… can you not find a way to get her out?"
"They have the whole place surrounded. I can not go in without raising a suspicion."
Cheta was broken. He had made a mistake! He had let his guard down.
For a moment, the room felt too small. Kambi's breath caught in her throat, the drapes over her body suddenly heavy, suffocating. "They will find her," she said, the words tasting of dread.
"Not if we act," Cheta murmured, moving closer. "We still have time but not much."
Her mind raced. Leaving the palace before the Osimiri was unthinkable; the eyes of the entire court would be upon her. Yet doing nothing meant handing the girl to the Alpha's mercy - a mercy that did not exist.
Kambi's pale eyes locked on Cheta's. "Then we will have to find a way… without them knowing we moved at all."
>
"Check every door! Every corner!"
Gamma Ejira's voice bellowed. The slaves shivered in fear and pain. Most had collapsed to the ground after the harsh beatings and the scorching sun.
All the prayers Ola could recite, had been recited. Every time a guard went into one of the rooms, her heart rate spiked. They store room had not yet been searched but she had lost all ability to reason.
At the far end of the yard, the White-Eyed were dragging a young boy forward, his arm twisted painfully behind him. The boy yelped, stumbling, as the Gamma barked,
"Check him! Strip the sleeve, show me his brand!"
The crowd of slaves murmured, a ripple of fear and resentment. Two women cried out for the boy, only to be silenced by the flat of a guard's spear.
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the quarters.
"Go check what that noise is all about!" Ejira's voice thundered. He could not fathom that anyone had the audacity to intrude in the business of the Palace.
Cheta had arrived with some of the Princess's Obadaris, - Dalhatu included. They were just a few of them, but the power and spirit they carried was suffocating. Obadaris did not have wolf spirits, but they made up for that with their immense power and spirit.
The moment Cheta crossed the threshold, a nearby soldier stiffened and moved to block his path. "The Gamma's orders..."
But he did not finish. One of the Obadaris stepped forward, slamming the butt of his spear into the dirt with a hollow thud. The air shifted.
The search paused. Silence.
"Gamma Ejira," Cheta said coolly.
'Cheta… he… he came… oh…'
Ola glanced briefly before her head was pinned back to the ground with a whip to the back of her neck. But all the pain did not bother her any longer. Cheta had come!
"By direct command of Her Highness, Princess Kambi, you are to cease this search immediately. The Princess demands that the slaves fetch water for tomorrow's ceremony!"
Ejira turned, a mocking smile tugging at his lips. "Fetch water! Cease?" He let out a short cruel laugh. " It seems you have become too pampered that you have forgotten your place! Cease what? While an unbranded slave runs free? This is the Alpha's law, Obadari. Even your mistress cannot..."
Cheta stepped forward until their armor almost touched, his voice a blade of ice. " It is Her Highness, Princess Kambi to you… and you will stop."
The Gamma's eyes narrowed. "And if I refuse?"
"You know, Ejira…" Cheta spat with as much disgust as he could mutter. "If I wanted you to back down without lifting my finger, I can do it in a breath."
Cheta smirked. Ejira's breath hitched.
"Wha… what are you… what are you talki…"
Cheta reached into his sash, drawing out a polished ivory seal, the golden moon crest of the Princess engraved deep into its face. "By the order of Princess Kambi, the soon-to-be Osimiri of this great Pack, I give this order. Any who refuses to obey should be prepared to answer to her. . And the Alpha will hear that you defied the Osimiri rites."
The Gamma's jaw tightened, calculation flickering behind his eyes. Around them, the guards shifted uneasily - no one wanting to be caught between an Obadari and the Gamma in open defiance of the royal seal.
Finally, Ejira spat to the side. "Fine. But let her know that her crown would not shield her forever."
Cheta ignored the barb, turning to his men. "Clear the yard. Prepare the slaves for the water run. The princess demands it."
Meanwhile…
Far from the confrontation, Dalhatu slipped into the compound through the back, very close to the store rooms.. She had memorized Cheta's hurried description - A woman named Ola. Tall. Scar on her left arm. It was not difficult to find her. She was the only one who did not move after Cheta's order. She kept glancing back over her head, as though she was looking for someone.
Before Ola could grasp the situation, she was dragged to the back, into the store house where Aira was. She yelped in confusion, but immediately, a hand covered her mouth, muting her screams. She was almost certain that they had been discovered.
"You are Ola," Dalhatu murmured, just loud enough for her to hear.
Ola's shivered in fear. "And you are?"
"Friend of the princess," Dalhatu said quickly. "We do not have time. Cheta sent me. Where is the child?"
That was all it took.
Ola shoved the oil bowl aside. With quick hands, she tugged aside a woven mat in the corner.
Dal's breath caught. Beneath it was a narrow pit, barely big enough for a child to crouch inside. And there she was - small, thin, her hair matted, her cheeks streaked with tears. She did not look up at first, just sat shivering, arms locked tight around her knees as though holding herself together was all she knew how to do. When her pale, tear-swollen eyes finally lifted to Dalhatu's, she felt something twist deep inside her - pity, anger, a surge of protectiveness she had not expected.
But there was no time for softness. Dal reached down. "Come. We have to go."
The girl flinched at the movement, and Ola quickly dropped beside her, murmuring softly until the child's trembling eased.
"She is brother Cheta's friend… she… she is here to help us."
Dal pulled her cloak around the girl's shoulders. "Stay close. Do exactly as I do."
They slipped out through the back of the hut, ducking into the narrow goat path that wound along the outer wall. And within a few minutes, they were gone. Swallowed by the maze of scrub and shadow beyond the quarter's gates.