Chapter 37 · Untitled Chapter

The silence did not break with a shout or an argument; it settled heavily, as the weight of an unmovable stone settles into the sand. I stood straight beneath the folds of my dark Abaya, my hands gathered calmly before me, refusing to let even a breath suggest uncertainty. Every pair of eyes in the majlis was fixed upon the low cedar table, where the settlement sheet rested beside the dry well of the pen, pristine and devoid of my name.

"You hear her," Bandar said. His voice was not raised, but the cold finality in it reached the farthest corners of the room, vibrating against the stone arches. "Her word has been given in the light of the morning. There is no second draft. There will be no delegation sent to her door with modified terms."

An elder near the perimeter shifted his weight, his fingers lingering on his beads, but he did not lift his eyes to contest the verdict. The cousins who had paced the rugs an hour before now stood with their shoulders rigid, looking anywhere but at Bandar's stern profile.