The Princess and the Thief

Amunet - [Betrayal]

My stomach growled as I spent yet another night in the dark prison that I was in. I had stopped refusing food as much as I had before… but I was still starving.

Two days had passed since Khai had told me that his family was killed by my father and he hadn’t returned to check on me at all after that.

That made me wonder if he was actually, genuinely upset.

Of course, I didn’t doubt my father’s innocence one bit. My father would never have killed anyone who was innocent.

His family must have done something wrong to deserve such a fate.

But as I continued to think about Khai's fate, I had noticed that their hideout was very quiet. But the second day after Khai had told me what my father supposedly did, I started to hear a lot of continuous yelling.

And eventually, there was screaming.

I was startled by the door swinging open and Khai marching into the room.

He quickly unlocked the gate of the cage I was held in and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me forward.

He then tied a cloak around me, covering my head and the rest of my body. “What’s going on?” I asked.

Khai didn’t respond.

After tying the cloak, he covered my mouth with a cloth and then lifted me into his arms.

Khai rushed through the halls of his hideout and only stopped when he made it to the exit. There, he put me on his horse and jumped on behind me, holding me in between his arms.

I was so exhausted and hungry that I couldn’t really scream or react much at all.

“You didn’t have to kill everyone.” Nui said, his horse catching up to us when ours started to move.

Khai spoke up for the first time. “They can’t be trusted.”

I turned my head slowly and saw only seven of the originally large group of men following behind us.

“Some of them may have been innocent.” Nui said.

Khai shook his head. “They weren’t.”

Nui sighed. “You’ve weakened our own army, Khai.”

“An army with traitors in it is weaker than an army of cows.”

I raised my eyebrows. Traitors?”

Nui shrugged. “I guess.”

“We have to find a new hideout. The Pharaoh is probably not too far from here now.” Khai suddenly pushed his horse into a gallop.

And now things were suddenly clear.

Someone had betrayed him.

That wasn’t good for him… but that was good for me.

That meant my father was on his way. It meant that I might be saved soon.

I felt so relieved now. But at the same time, for some strange reason, I was also still very scared.

We were riding for what felt like days and my bottom hurt so much that I tried so hard to slip off the horse and just fall onto the burning hot sand.

But Khai would never let me fall.

And what made all of this worse was that I could feel Khai’s anger.

This betrayal he has faced clearly infuriated him, and since I was the closest person there was to him, I feared my life. He could do anything to me if I made one wrong move.

But soon, we had finally come to a stop.

We had reached a tiny little lake, and by the looks of this tiny lake in the middle of Egypt’s dessert… it was clear that this was one of Egypt’s few Oasis’.

He lifted me off the horse and placed me on the ground. But I fell onto the ground, lying down in the wet soil.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths as I felt the cool air coming from the water.

What I would do for a nice, cool bath.

I lifted myself up and crawled to the water. It was difficult because my hands were tied, but when I made it, I fell back down onto the floor and put my feet and hands in the water.

The cool air from the water and the hot rays of the sun felt so good against my skin.

It made me sigh and dream of the day that these men would let me be.

As time passed, I could feel the stares of all the men, but I didn’t care.

And before I knew it, I had dozed off.

But I woke up much later in the evening and I was startled by the darkness.

Lifting myself off the cold ground, I noticed I wasn’t near the water anymore. I was now in something that looked like a cave. And it felt cold and damp, but the opening was near and I could see the night sky filled with stars.

Was that a dream?

But then, as I looked around and pulled my hands closer to me, I saw the ropes pull on Khai’s arm, waking him up too.

He looked at me and then closed his eyes again.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” He said. “Just go back to sleep.”

I looked around, remembering what had happened. “Your men betrayed you?” I asked him.

He kept his eyes closed. “I’m not in a good mood right now, princess. So don’t test my patience.”

I watched him carefully and could see that he really was mad.

“How did the betray you?”

He rolled his eyes and groaned as he turned over so his back was to me.

I frowned.

“It was because of you.”

I looked up and saw Nui walk into the cold, cave like thing we were in.

“Shut up Nui.” Khai said. He didn’t turn though.

Nui just looked at me, glaring. “Those men were not happy that our King chose to protect your precious dignity.”

I looked at Khai and then back at Nui. This was my fault?

“Shut up.” Khai said again.

Nui looked away and then walked out of the cave. He looked to be almost as angry about this as Khai was.

“How did they betray you?” I asked again. I tried to be a little nicer though.

But Khai didn’t respond.

“Did someone tell my father where you’re hiding?”

No response.

I sighed and looked at the floor. “Do you really believe that my father did something to hurt you?”

“I know he did.” He said.

“Then if you let me go I’ll convince him to leave you be.” I said. “As long as you promise not to hurt anyone.”

Khai snorted as he lifted himself up and turned back towards me. “I’m not keeping you here to get his pardon. I’m keeping you here so I can kill him.”

I looked at him. “You can’t kill my father.”

“Watch me.”

I felt the tears coming out. “My father didn’t hurt you!” I argued. “Just leave him be!”

Suddenly, Nui returned into the cave. “Jeq has returned.”

Khai got up right away and started to exit the cave. I had to get up too because the rope was pulling me behind him.

When we got outside, an unfamiliar man approached us. “So it’s true.” He said. “You have the princess.”

He was a tall, large and built man with black long hair. His eyes were dark and he wore no shirt, just harem pants. But his body was covered in jewels.

“How much do you want us to give you for her?”

I turned to Khai, they were selling me off?

But Khai had an eyebrow raised. “I never said we were going to give her to you.”

Now the man, Jeq, raised an eyebrow. “Then what?”

“We need more men.

Jeq snorted. “We’ll give you men if you give us the girl.”

“This girl is what we’re going to use to kill the king.” Khai said.

Jeq shrugged. “No girl, no men.”

“Then go to hell.” Khai said before he turned around.

But then Jeq chuckled. “Suit yourself. But let me warn you, I saw the King’s men not too far from here.

Khai froze as he turned around. “What?”

Jeq smiled. “The soldiers at the camp not too far from here spotted you and your men galloping through the dessert with the Princess.” He said. “You’re going to lose, Khai.”

“Get the hell out of here.” Khai said to him.

Jeq kept smiling as he turned and got back onto his horse. “I’ll give the King an hour. He’ll be here in an hour. And as of this point on, he will be on your tail till one of you are dead.”

He then turned his horse and galloped off, all alone.

“The King is coming?” Nui hissed. “How the hell did that happen?”

Khai turned to one of his men. “You said this route was safe.”

The tall, skinny man who looked like he could be nothing more then a simple thief, stepped back.

Khai narrowed his eyes as he dropped my rope he used to hold me. “You were on their side too, weren’t you?”

The bald man gulped. “No, sir. I wasn’t.”

I was about to run, but for some reason, as Khai pulled out his sword, I froze.

“You know what happens to people who betray me.” Khai said.

The bald man started to sweat. “I didn’t…” He then fell onto his knees. “Forgive me!” He cried.

And then I screamed as the Thief heartlessly sliced off the head of the other man.

I fell back onto my bottom, screaming as the head rolled onto the floor.

I screamed so loudly that I knew that if my father was really an hour away from us, he would have definitely heard.

And I prayed that he would hurry and find me before I faced a similar fate.