"Much…" Namdu replied, waving an impatient hand glimmering with jeweled rings. "But I shan’t elaborate on the details, not now. You are a woman and a princess. You need not know of these affairs."

"But I want to know, Namdu."

Namdu smiled and patted my hand as one does a child. "You must learn to accept your destiny, my child."

"I am not a child anymore," I began before I could stop. "I want to know these things. I need to know if I am going to rule."

"You do not need to know, Anjika Tarbia, for your husband will rule for you. I have already selected him."

I digested this information. Firstly, he must be irritated with me for he had called me by my name: Anjika Tarbia. Secondly, he planned to wed me and thirdly, the most dangerous of all, he had already selected my husband.

"You are wondering who is to be your husband?" Namdu continued. "You need not be concerned. He is a fine, strong man… who will be a strong ruler over our people."

"It’s Kasim, isn’t it?"

"Lord Kasim," Namdu corrected. "Yes, although his methods are a little unscrupulous at times, he will rule with--"

"Cruelty. Kasim is a cruel, vile man. I have heard of his cruelty to his own people, to his soldiers… to his women. Curse me if you will, Namdu, but I will not marry him. Lord Kasim is not even a man but a snake. No, I insult the snakes." I knew my eyes would be glaring by now. They always did whenever I was angry, Mimia told me so. In the rawala, the women’s quarters, they called me the ‘angry goddess of the sky’ because of my sahib eyes.

To my astonishment, he remained silent during my outburst. When I finished, he stood up and circled me. I did not want to meet his eyes, but I did. I almost detected a hint of sympathetic regret. Suddenly I was sorry for I could never be the daughter, or the chief princess, he needed. I suppose my failing was to be blamed on the sahib blood flowing through my veins. Blackening my soul in front of the gods, as Yasminia would often mutter.

"I’m afraid I have given you too much freedom in expressing yourself," Namdu said with a deliberate slowness. "I am not pleased it has turned out this way. Much better if you’d been a son--however, you must marry Kasim--the alliance is signed and unavoidable and will give our kingdom the strength it needs to survive. And besides," Namdu smiled to himself, "it is advantageous for me… and for you, if you let it be. I would not rebel, Anjika Tarbia, for it can only end in disaster. You are Rani Anjika, Princess of the Maharaja of Brunsighn, your children will inherit all this…" He gestured around him, "You are also a child of the Phoenix… do these things mean nothing to you?"

I did not know how to answer. I probed his eyes, but could say nothing. How could he understand my longing to see the outside world… the world of the sahibs?

Namdu nodded. "I understand your anxiety. The ceremony will take place in a paksh. Yasminia will supervise the preliminary rituals as my Lord Kasim has asked. Now, you may go."

He called the guards to take me away to my new quarters. Escort, some people call it, but even now, I realized how much my life was like that of a prisoner.

I wondered what I would have to do.