Read Online Sultana's Legacy by Lisa J. Yarde - Free Book Online

father second. It has always been this way.”
    “That’s not fair!” Fatima knew Alimah spoke the truth, but she could not allow anyone to besmirch her father’s reputation, even a beloved sister.
    “When you see him at Gharnatah and he has condemned your Faraj, you shall understand. You see everyone so clearly, Fatima, except him. Love for him has always blinded you. I am truly sorry for your husband’s fate. I remain grateful to him, for the sanctuary he has offered since my husband’s death at Mayurqa. You cannot expect me to forgive the Sultan. I can never forget that my son and daughters are orphans because of him. His inaction killed my husband. Abu Umar would be alive if Father had helped us, if he had protected the people of Mayurqa. If your husband had not offered dowries for my girls, they might never have married. Their children shall never know Abu Umar. All this and more I lay at the Sultan’s feet.”
    “He suffers regrets of the past.”
    Alimah’s brown eyes, which had once glittered with vitality, met Fatima’s own. Naked pain reflected deep within Alimah’s watery gaze. “The Sultan has yet to know the meaning of suffering. I pray by God that he shall learn it before the end of his days.”
    Her words chilled Fatima more than the blustery breeze.
    “You should forgive him someday, Alimah.”
    “You must learn to see the Sultan for what he is. He let my husband die. He may condemn yours without mercy. His own first wife, our mother, could not love him. Have you never wondered why? Have you never asked him?”
    Fatima had often considered the pain-filled end of her parents’ marriage, having understood from her own union that bonds could fray at the slightest disagreement. Yet each time memories of her mother’s unhappiness plagued her, she dismissed them. To consider such thoughts would be a betrayal of her father. She loved him too much to condemn him for hurting her own mother.
    Her stubborn refusal to accept her father’s faults affected her relationships with everyone, even the bond with her beloved husband. She had argued so ardently against Faraj’s actions because of the duty she still owed to her father. Fatima shook her head. Her loyalty to the Sultan vied with her care for Faraj. How could she hope to reconcile the interests of the two men she loved most in life?
    Alimah turned away from Fatima, her last words carried on the wind. “If the Sultan wants forgiveness, let him seek it from God. I have none to give.”  
    ***
    Three days later, Fatima, Niranjan and her maidservants had joined a camel caravan headed for Gharnatah. They traveled without guards from Malaka. The merchants did not ask questions regarding their haste, thanks to the full purse of dinars Niranjan had pressed into the eager hands of the caravan leader.
    Fatima felt certain Faraj must have reached the capital by now. Would she arrive in time to find his head mounted on a spike atop the Bab Ilbira ? Her heart, shredded into bloody, bitter pieces, rejected the inevitable. Her head cautioned that Faraj was still alive. She accepted this understanding without question. He lived and if only she might reach him in time, he might escape the Sultan’s wrath.
    When they sighted the burnished redbrick walls of Gharnatah in the distance, frigid air from the mountains descended without mercy. Heavy gray clouds clung to the peaks and nearly obscured their jagged heights. Fatima pulled her mantle tighter about her and ducked her head against the cold, urging her horse onward.
    She and Niranjan parted with the caravan at the main gate. A sigh of relief rippled through her, as her gaze scoured the walls and found no grisly display atop the main city gate. The streets emptied, as the call of prayer at midday echoed throughout the bustling city.
    Grateful for the diminished crowd, Fatima rode up the steep incline of the Sabika hill perched high above the valley below. The guards patrolling the palace precincts gave her and