The eunuch, after learning what happened to Safiya, agreed to come to the palace to be interviewed. But like Beatriz, the older man was only able to speak of the past.
"I wish I could be of more help to you," Urwa said heavily when all the others were gone, and it was just him and Sheikh Altair in one of the palace's drawing rooms. "But it has been years since I last spoke to the princess. We had not any contact since Saul convinced Sheikh Mahmud to banish Beatriz and me from Farigha on false charges."
"You are not to blame for anything." Altair's tone was harsh with self-recrimination. "It is my fault that she is gone, and I only wish to find her and ensure that she is safe."
Urwa quietly studied the sheikh's stoic features. When looking at Sheikh Altair, he supposed that most people would never care to look past the surface. Scarred and intimidating, the sheikh did not appear to be the type to care for his betrothed in any significant amount.
But when one looked really closely—-
That was when they would see the depth of torment in the sheikh's dark gaze, and the sight of it had him swallowing hard. Although Beatriz had scoffed at him the first time he spoke of a relationship between the princess and the sheikh, he had always secretly prayed it would be so. Because after all that Safiya had undergone, he had thought that she, more than anyone else, would deserve to marry a hero like Altair.
And yet in the end...
Urwa cleared his throat and waited until the sheikh glanced at him—-
"There was once a eunuch, an aging harlot, and a princess..."
"That sounds like the beginning of a bad joke," Altair muttered
"It is," Urwa acknowledged. "But you will need to hear it anyway."
Altair frowned when Urwa repeated the same line.
"There was once a eunuch, an aging harlot, and a princess..."
What the fuck was this about?
"And of the three...could you guess which one of them didn't know a thing about love?" Urwa saw the sheikh's jaw clench, which told him that the younger man knew exactly what he meant.
That the girl knew how to love, there was no question of. The girl loved true, and the girl's love was constant, to the point that Beatriz and Urwa often wished it was not so.
And as for the sheikh...
Urwa had asked the younger man earlier about his relationship with the princess, and the sheikh had been honest - painfully so at times - in admitting how his distrust had caused him to misunderstand many of Safiya's actions. The manner in which the sheikh spoke had also been telling. The man clearly believed he deserved to lose the princess; the only reason the sheikh was desperately searching for Safiya was to ensure her safety, and it was because of this—-
Urwa knew that the sheikh's feelings for Safiya were what he had always dreamed the princess would someday have. Imperfect as the sheikh was, and regardless of how the sheikh's relationship with Safiya had been rooted in deception and distrust - all of those things were immaterial.
What mattered was that the sheikh loved Safiya.
And his love was just as true and constant.
His love was the kind that would last.
And most importantly of all, his love for the princess, even in the times he had been blinded by fear - his love had always put Safiya first, and for a girl who had been abandoned and neglected by her father for her entire life -
That was the love that would mean the world to the princess, and the thought had Urwa's voice turning thick with emotion when he started speaking again.
"The girl knows how to love, alshaykh, but she knows nothing of love. She has experienced so little of it that her understanding of it is still that of a child."
Altair could only clench and unclench his fists as Urwa's words sank in, and he found himself remembering having come home after meeting Mahmud for the first time...and not understanding why she wouldn't ask him a single thing about it. He remembered thinking her actions were proof of guilt, but now he knew it was just as Urwa said.
She had not realized that her actions could be misunderstood. She had assumed, just like a child, that there was only one conclusion for him to draw, and that his conclusion would be something good.
But it hadn't been.
Because he was not and never had been the guardian angel she insisted on seeing him as.
All he had been was a man who had hurt her. Distrusted her. Deceived her.
And now...
Even now...
All he could be was a man who loved her.
Even if she were never to come back to his side—-
Urwa looked away when he saw the sheikh's shoulders began to shake.
"All I need is to know she's safe. Dear God, just keep her safe. It's all I ask."