Once We Were Starlight

Haziq laughed. “Why would I want an old man on Sundara, his beauty faded, no act to attract the customers? I have no need for you any longer when Karys herself can bring in such high offers. The older you get, the less you look like twins anyway. The act is getting stale. No one believes it. There are now whiskers on your face, darkening your jaw even when you shave.” He used his hand to swipe at his own face. “And the shape . . . it’s changed. All wrong. Too sharp. Your body . . .” He swept his hand in Zakai’s direction, making a face of disapproval and disappointment. “Before . . . you looked like twins, two sides of the same star, but now . . .” He shook his head and sighed dramatically as he came to his feet, hobbling around his desk and approaching Zakai. When I looked down at his foot, sickness filled my throat. There was a bandage still wrapped around it from the viper bite, but what lay beneath no longer looked to be the size of a normal foot, and the white linen cloth was stained pink and yellow and brown, putrefaction seeping through the material. My heart stalled as he limped slowly around Zakai, his eyes moving up and down, considering. Zakai watched him suspiciously as though Haziq had turned into the viper that had greeted him in his chamber so recently. “What can I do to keep your act interesting?” Haziq scratched at his chin as his gaze came to rest on Zakai’s groin. Something evil darkened his eyes and a smile tilted his thick lips as he ran his hand over the knife strapped at his waist. “The eunuch and the whore perhaps.” He turned, raising his finger. “Yes! I like it. It has promise. The guests will flock to see such a thing. Perhaps I will cut your tongue out too. No cock. No tongue. How will you please her then?” He laughed.

Zakai’s jaw was clenched so tightly, the muscles were shaking. “Do what you must to me. But Karys goes back to our room, alone. She spends time with no man,” he repeated.

But Haziq laughed once more. He was deriving great pleasure from this. And his glee had nothing to do with money, and everything to do with evening the score with Zakai. “I regret to say that my answer is no. I must strike while the iron’s hot as the Americans say. As I said, your act is growing stale. Soon her pussy will be stale too. I’m a man of business. I must sell the wares while the wares are fresh and sweet and . . . juicy.” A horrified squeak came from somewhere, and I realized I was the one who’d made the sound.

Zakai exploded then, grabbing a chair and raising it over his head. “Run, Karys!” he yelled just as Haziq’s three bodyguards rushed into the room. I attempted to duck beneath the fatter one, but he was fast and caught me around my waist as I screamed, my feet coming off the floor.

He held me immobile as Zakai brought the chair down on Haziq’s desk, the wood splintering loudly as Haziq shielded himself from the flying debris. Zakai’s body pivoted away from the second lunging bodyguard and he swooped up a chair leg, the broken wood pointy and sharpened on the end. He swiped it as the man grabbed for him, but then drew back with a yelp as blood sprayed from his arm, clutching the bloody cut Zakai had caused.

I kicked and fought as Zakai swung his weapon, drawing blood, but not enough. He fought like a thunderstorm, a force of nature, but in the end, the two men overtook him, assisted by the weapons they possessed, much deadlier than the broken leg of a wooden chair.

“Chain him against the wall outside the room where Karys will be,” Haziq commanded. “Do not take his manhood, not yet. That will be my pleasure. Leave him for the night. Make him listen.” He looked directly at Zakai, his chest rising and falling quickly. A sneer of hatred mottled Zakai’s beautiful face. “Maybe the American will be gentle. Or maybe he won’t. But she likes that, doesn’t she?” Haziq laughed. “Ahmad didn’t enjoy violence, but ah, your little star does, doesn’t she?” His smile widened, and that seemed to give Zakai a burst of strength as he again attempted to fight the two men holding him, one of whom smashed his fist into Zakai’s stomach, making him double over, a harshly exhaled breath of pain whooshing from his mouth.

I sobbed, attempting to bite the arm that held me, but I was too weakened, and the man holding me captive was far too strong. I sagged in his arms, wailing Zakai’s name. He moaned, his body beaten, but his eyes still flashing with fire. “Karys. Remember. In a sky full of stars, you are my home,” he said, his gaze beseeching. “We will rise into the sky and be together again.”