Akila was an ordinary servant who worked as much as she was supposed to, didn't talk too much, and always did what she was told. So when the Crown Prince's personal guard suddenly approached her, she was very surprised, if not shocked.

  She might not have gone at all, claiming that she had too much work to do and would not be able to finish it otherwise, but when the guard said her brother's name, all her doubts disappeared and she could hardly restrain herself from rushing ahead of the guard.

  When they reached the door of the Pharaoh's office, which the Prince was temporarily occupying, the guard knocked on the door and said:

  "Your Highness, I have brought Akila, as you commanded."

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  But his answer was silence.

  "Your Highness?" the guard asked again.

  And again, the only response was silence.

  "Your Highness," he called again, "may we enter, or—"

  Before he could finish, Akila, overcome by a bad feeling, pushed him aside—she was much stronger than her appearance suggested—and threw open the door.

  What she saw made her let out a bloodcurdling scream.

  On the floor, in a pool of fresh blood still flowing from his body, lay her younger brother. His eyes were filled with tears, and his mouth was open as if in unspoken last words of love for her.

  She rushed forward, but Nasir caught her and covered her mouth with his hand to silence her and spare the situation from unnecessary witnesses.

  She bit and struggled in the guard's arms, but Nasir was not the Prince's personal guard for nothing — such things were nothing to him.

  "Your Highness," Nasir called out, "what happened here?"

  The Prince, sitting on the floor in a pool of blood and holding a bloody dagger in his hand, turned his head towards the guard and, as if hypnotised, said:

  "I killed him."

  Another attempt by Akila to break free forced Nasir to knock her out.

  "I beg your pardon, Your Highness?" Nasir asked, as if he couldn't believe it.

  "I killed him, Nasir," he repeated. "I killed him.”