Chapter 34 · Untitled Chapter

The silver key was cool beneath the brush of my fingers, its cut edge sharp and definite against my skin. Beside it, the embossed gold emblem on the passport caught the low, amber glow of the wall sconces.

For months, every wall in this northern estate had felt designed to hem me in, every polite inquiry from my uncle nothing more than an assessment of how quietly I might be displaced. They had weighed my presence like an inherited ledger entry, expecting me to fold my hands, relinquish my place at the perimeter, and slip into silence.

Instead, Saud stood before me in his clean white thobe, his posture immovable, offering the one thing none of the elders in the outer hall had ever conceived of granting: an unhindered horizon.

"The driver waits at the side courtyard if you wish it," Saud said, his tone devoid of demand or grievance. "His instructions are already given. No one questions your departure."

I looked at him across the low rosewood table.