Chapter 24 · Untitled Chapter

The quiet that followed Saud’s words held the majlis in an unyielding grip. When Ammi finally rose from the carpets, he scooped the parchment from the low table with stiff fingers, refusing to look directly at either of us as he stepped past the heavy cedar thresholds into the central hallway.

I gathered the folds of my abaya, keeping the black tarha tucked securely over my shoulders, and followed a measured three paces behind. In the corridor, the air was cool with the draft from the stone courtyard, scented faintly with lingering oud and cold limestone. Several members of the household staff and two distant cousins lingered near the archways, their eyes downcast but attentive to every shift in breath between the families.

Ammi turned abruptly near the base of the stairs, the scroll gripped in his right hand like a weapon that had failed to strike. His jaw was clenched, his white thobe sharp against the corridor’s shadowed stone.

"The lineage of this house does not yield its records to external ledgers, Saud," Ammi said, his voice dropped low, meant to carve an edge of authority before those who served him.