Zaiyoz

Chapter 11

Bihlke didn’t seem to expect my answer, making her face turn serious and concerned. “I hope she’ll be okay soon!” She touched my arm gently, feeling her sympathy.

My eyes roved on her beautiful flawless face. I hadn’t even realized I was already staring at her until Bavid spoke.

“Aren’t we going now, Bihlke?”

That was when I realized she was also staring at me. She pursed her lips and gave Bavid a sharp look.

“What’s the hurry?”

“We still have to find someone, right?” he reminded her.

She let out a dramatic sigh. “If he’s hiding, we can’t find him easily, Bavid.”

I wondered who they were talking about. My eyes were dragged to her hand that touched my arm again, patting it gently.

“Good luck, stranger. We’ll have to go now.” She turned around to leave, making my heart sink down to my stomach.

Can I see you again?

“I… uh… thanks for the help!” I said instead.

She raised a hand and waved it without looking back as she and her boyfriend strode out of the jewelry shop. I could only watch them walk toward south.

“Here you go, young man!” The old woman appeared a few minutes after that, smiling. She gave me a small transparent bag with tiny pieces of the odim in perfect small circles.

My eyes widened. I didn’t expect her to make them so small like these—maybe a tenth of an inch—which I could sell for the same price as I originally planned. There could be at least a hundred pieces of them in the palm-sized bag!

“Just ensure you don’t touch all of them when you’re wounded, so that you have lots of spares.” She winked.

“I… These… these are…” I trailed off, tearing my eyes from the bag I accepted to look at her.

“I already took my share, by the way. So, let me give you the Xekka.”

“Um… maybe you can take more if you want,” I offered.

She shook her head. “No, you don’t have to give me more if you and your uncle are going to need them in your endeavors.” She smiled kindly and went over to the glass box and opened its lid, taking the necklace and put it inside a small bag of black cloth. “To keep it safer until you can give it to that special someone.”

My throat constricted. “Thank you so much, madam! I owe you a lot.”

She waved a hand carelessly and chortled gently. “No! You don’t owe me anything. Go on. I know you still have a lot to do, don’t you?” Her eyes peered mine knowingly.

I smiled reluctantly and turned to leave after pocketing the necklace and the odim in each pants pocket.

I sold a few pieces in the market and bought a couple of new clothes, knives and the best sword I could find before I went back to the mikmalon, giving the owner a piece of gold, making his eyes shine.

“You tell me what else you need, young man!” he asked with a wide smile, showing his yellowish teeth.

“A bag of food and drinks for my travel first thing tomorrow morning,” I informed him.

“Consider it done!” he said, chuckling and slapping the surface of the table.

I was about to go upstairs when I retraced my steps, tossing him another piece of gold coin, making his eyes go rounder. “I’m going to need the fastest horse. Of course, the healthiest one. I want it to be ready by tonight if you can provide it. And I’ll give you another piece of gold if you also report to the Urigge the thieves that came into my room last night.” My silver eyes probed his. I was hoping deep inside he had nothing to do with it, since he was not a magician.

His orbs wavered as he looked back at me. “Oh! You were robbed? How dared they? Why didn’t you tell me last night?”

I shrugged. “I was tired.”

He raised a finger. “I’ll do my best to catch those thieves!”

“I sure hope you do!” I nodded to him, seeing his eyes falter. “Because the next time I’m robbed inside this inn, I’ll make their blood flow and display your head in a spike at the town’s square.”

When he bobbed his head up and down, I ran up the stairs to my room.

My late lunch was delivered magically after I put the sack on the bed. The things I shopped were placed in the sack. It made me recall how I lost my sling bag in the past.

Trusting the owner of a mikmalon I lost all my gems in just one night. And he even reported me to the Urigge that I was a thief.

***

“Clench your buttocks well, kid!” the flogger said, almost hitting me with the whip when he struck the ground as though he was warming up. The people in town surrounding me and the flogger looked on as I was about to be flogged publicly for being a “thief,” which I definitely wasn’t.

However, before I was going to be flogged, Shamaro appeared, grabbing the flogger by the collar, raising him up with one hand.

“You are not to touch him and let alone flog this young man. Understood?” His eyes threatened the bulky flogger with long curly hair. Dark brown eyes wavered as his blue eyes were fiercer.

Shamaro dropped the flogger and readily showed his palace guard’s circular badge that was half the size of his palm with a golden tassel and the emperor’s seal embossed on it, making the head of the town, as well as the flogger and the people, kneel and bow down to him like a deity being worshipped.

Palace guards outside the palace were treated like the emperor himself.

“I’m taking this young man with me and no one is to touch him while we’re here.”

Murmurs of “Who is this young man?” resounded among the crowd. But Shamaro being himself didn’t even explain and it was to protect me.

“I told you not to follow me!” I hissed at him when we were far from the crowd.

“Your Highness, you can go wherever you want but I will come to your rescue whenever I think it’s necessary,” he answered stubbornly.

“At least just don’t call me that anymore. Vowen will do,” I ordered him.

He shook his head. “I can’t disrespect the heir of Kazron Empire!” he answered, almost scandalized.

“I’m no longer the heir when I left the palace, Shamaro.”

“I completely disagree, Your Highness! Wherever you may be, you are the only heir to the throne! You’re the emperor’s only child!” he pointed out.

I snorted. “My parents are not old, so they can still make another child,” I said carelessly. I didn’t even feel envy when I thought of having another sibling. In fact, I became excited with that thought. Not that Arotti would be replaced because she would never be. But to have another sibling would be a blessing. That was what I thought.

“Her Grace can no longer bear another child. I heard some palace maids say it,” he told me.

That made me stop walking on the street, oblivious to the stares of people who happened to know I was about to be flogged but was off the hook because the palace guard saved me.

“And why is that? My mother is not old yet to not be able to have another child. She and Father can have more,” I insisted.

He shrugged. “I have no idea but that’s what they were saying. And I must protect you in every way I can,” he declared.

Right. He’s the epitome of stubbornness and duty. I shouldn’t forget about that.

I shook my head and left him to look for a place to eat. He escorted me, to ensure that no one would dare touch me in the town.

***

I went to the washroom and quickly had a bath. After putting my pants on, I gazed at my reflection in the mirror, checking the green tattoo on my chest. I put my badge on the blade of my wide shoulder to study the map.

What could the sword mean? Must I have it? Or is it just some kind of a symbol that I can use when I arrived in Dunik? I had no idea what to expect when I’d get there. There was no other choice but to follow the path that Ezohr magically tattooed on my chest.

I took a deep breath and put on a shirt with short sleeves, showing off my biceps and well-toned arms, wide chest, wide shoulders and taut stomach. Then I secured my hair in a man bun as usual, ever since I left the palace. I wanted to look different from when I was in the palace back then. It didn’t mean I wanted to erase who I am because that would never happen, which Shamaro did always pointed out. But that was because of what Arotti once suggested to me. She thought it would be better for me to have my hair kept like that. I could only sadly smile at my own reflection.

“Why?” I asked her while we were in the huge library. Stocks of different books were kept neatly in the ceiling-to-floor built-in golden shelves.

“Because I’m a girl and it’s just right to loosen my hair, whereas you, you’re a boy,” she said, shrugging.

I could only laugh at her shallow reason. But it did make sense to me, too.

“You just don’t like me looking like you, right?” I teased her.

She grimaced. “Why do I look exactly like your female version, huh?”

I pinched her nose. “Try asking that to Father and Mother,” I suggested, laughing at her.

She made a face before pouting her lips. “You think it’s appropriate to ask that kind of question?” She arched an eyebrow.

“You think about that,” I teased.

She suddenly stuck her tongue out. “You want me to be scolded by Mother?”

I chuckled pulling her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

“Hey, Adhi! Don’t do that! It’s embarrassing!” She looked around, noticing the quiet sniggers of her palace maids while Shamaro just stared at her.