Responsibility
A good meal with family is always worth appreciating
Dinner was cramped as always. The family ate in the kitchen, sitting cross-legged around a circular, wooden table covered in sweet long rice, lightly spiced meat, and some fruit and flatbread. The twins sat next to each other in between Hashem and Sadie’s mother, Jaleh. Sadie sat to Jaleh’s other side, and her sister Aria was next to her. The family ate together as they did on most nights, though of late Aria had found herself invited to dinner with potential suitors more and more often. Sadie tried her best not to be jealous on that front.
“How was everyone’s day?” Jaleh asked.
Abed seemed particularly jittery.
“Abed, why don’t you start?” their mother suggested, noticing her son’s urgency.
Sadie’s mother was a pristine beauty even as she approached her sixties. She and Hashem had married far later in their lives than most people in the empire did. In Hashem, that agedness showed in his worn, wrinkled face and graying sideburns, in the limp to his step and shaking in his hands. Jaleh, however, looked no older than other people’s mothers. High cheekbones gave her face a regal look, and her unblemished, tawny skin and full lips made her seem twenty years younger than she actually was.
Abed grinned. “I have a date next week,” he proclaimed proudly.
“Only because you won the coin toss,” Beg grumbled.
“No, she just likes me better.” Abed’s grin widened.
“She would have said yes if I’d asked, too. We look the same.”
“Nah, I’m better looking. And I’m more talented.”
“Oh ho, a date, huh?” Hashem asked before Beg could protest. “Tell us more.”
Beg rolled his eyes.
“It’s with Mahtab,” Abed said, a mischievous look crawling across his face.
“Kamand’s daughter?” Sadie’s mother asked.
“Yup!”
Aria whistled. “Really?!”
Abed frowned. “Why are you so surprised?”
“Mahtab is beautiful,” Aria replied, putting extra emphasis on the word ‘beautiful’. “And she’s warrior caste. How did a djinn’s testicle like you manage to get a date with her?”
“How?!” Abed repeated, putting a hand to his chest in mock offense. He smirked. “With my good looks and sparkling charm, of course.”
Aria rolled her eyes, but Sadie actually believed her brother. At fifteen years old, the twins were both shaping up into strapping young men. They’d both had their growth spurt the previous summer, and now loomed over Sadie by at least a head and a half. What was more, long hours pulling their father’s wagon of wares through town had graced them with muscular builds reminiscent of Hashem himself.
Most of the family was good looking like that, much to Sadie’s chagrin. At fourteen, Aria already resembled their mother in all the best ways, having inherited a generous figure and full lips, a divinely smooth complexion, and a curvature to her eyes that gave her a perpetually sultry expression. More than once, Aria had been mistaken for the older of the two sisters.
Sadie, unfortunately, hadn’t gotten her mother’s good looks, at least not in her own opinion. Whereas Jaleh was voluptuous and well proportioned, Sadie was small and stick thin. On Sadie’s face, the high cheekbones she’d inherited made her look ratty rather than regal, and the slight hook in her nose that she’d inherited from her father didn’t play well with her other features.
Aria was always telling her to be more confident, but... well, even though Sadie claimed that she didn’t care what boys thought of her, the fact that no boy had ever expressed even the most mild interest in her still whittled her confidence down a bit, especially given Aria had a new suitor pining for her outside their door nearly every week.
“We’re excited for you, son,” Hashem said. “But remember, always be on your best behavior when dating someone from the warrior caste. Those people are sticklers for rules and procedures. Try not to offend Mahtab or her parents, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it,” Abed replied. He shoved a spoonful of rice into his mouth. “I survived growing up under your roof, didn’t I?”
Hashem chuckled. The family continued to eat, each in turn sharing part of their day. There were raised eyebrows around the table when Sadie declined to share, but a few words from her father quickly dissipated any tension. She was grateful to him for not outing her to her mother.
When they were finished eating, Hashem cleared his throat. The others looked up expectantly. His face had grown solemn. He seemed older than he normally did, tired. The soft glow of candlelight illuminated the wrinkles in his face, giving prominence to the long decades he had lived.
“I’m going to need everyone to pay attention right now,” Hashem said. “That means you two, especially,” he added, glancing between Abed and Beg, who were already in the midst of fighting over the last flatbread at the table. They stopped when Hashem addressed them, as if hypnotized by the stare of his glass eye.
“Uh, sorry,” Beg said.
“Yeah, sorry,” Abed said.
Sadie sat up straighter. She felt uneasy all of a sudden. Her father had seemed different since speaking with Executioner; more reserved, even a bit agitated.
“There’s... no easy way to explain this, so I’m just going to say it,” Hashem said. “Crown Princess Ariana has been kidnapped.”
Aria reacted first, gasping audibly. “Was... Was it ‘you-know-who’?” she whispered. “The laughing snake?”
Hashem shook his head. “She was kidnapped by a member of the Scarlet Kingdom’s royal family, Prince Vahid. It seems he intends to marry her despite her betrothal to Lord Kazem.”
Jaleh pursed her lips as immediately all the children at the table began speaking at once. Hashem held up a hand to quiet the table.
When that didn’t work, he simply bellowed, “QUIET!” The table shut up at that point. “One at a time,” Hashem said. He pointed at Abed, who had a raised hand.
“How can a marriage like that be considered legitimate?” Abed asked.
Hashem shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I brought this up because it could mean war.”
Sadie stiffened. Her eyes drifted to her mother. Jaleh had gone sheet white, though for the moment she remained silent.
Both twins opened their mouths to speak, but Hashem cut them off before they had a chance. “The hope is it doesn't come to that. For that reason, I’ve agreed to join Executioner as a member of the rescue party.”
Sadie’s blood turned to ice. Her father was leaving. No... Not again.
“When do you set out?” Jaleh asked. She looked ashen, the lines in her face creased with worry.
“Executioner and I will begin our journey across the sand later tonight. Gods willing, we’ll be able to intercept them before they reach Babosar and put an end to this mess.”
The others began to speak, trying to collect themselves and string enough words together to begin asking questions. Was war inevitable? Would the rescue party be just Hashem and Executioner? Sadie, meanwhile, tried to push down her anxiety. She began to finger the pendant her father had gifted her only hours earlier. Had he given her this keepsake because he’d known he was leaving?
“Why does it have to be you?!” she blurted out, loudly enough to be heard above the others.
Hashem turned to her. There was sadness in his expression, like he was reluctant to speak. “I made a promise,” he murmured. He seemed to want to say more, but held himself back. His glass eye glinted in the dim light of the room, making his face harder to read.
“But you can’t!” Sadie exclaimed, her voice shooting up an octave. “What about your injuries?!”
“I swore an oath, Sadie. It’s true that I’m not the same man I was a decade ago, but I must keep my promise. Besides, I’ll be with Executioner.”
“This isn’t about Executioner!” Sadie retorted. “You’re not even in the warrior caste, anymore!”
“You have to understand-” Hashem tried to speak, but Sadie interrupted him.
“You became a merchant because you didn’t want that responsibility! Because you didn’t want us to grow up fatherless like you had to!”
“Sadie!” Jaleh snapped.
Hashem pursed his lips.
Sadie’s eyes stung. It was a fruitless argument, she knew. Her gaze drifted to her father’s arms, to the dark tattoos that wrapped them from hands to shoulders. Even in retirement Hashem was bound by the oaths he had sworn. Such was the fate of all born into the warrior caste. Only by virtue of Covenant Faith law, that caste was inherited on the mother’s side, did Sadie and her siblings avoid that fate themselves.
“Sadie is right,” Hashem admitted. “Crossing the sand is dangerous. There’s a possibility that things won’t go as expected.” He met the eyes of each of his children. “If that happens, I need you all to promise me that you’ll take care of each other.”
The way he spoke shattered her heart into a million pieces. Why did he sound like he was saying goodbye?
“Let one of us go!” Abed declared, leaping to his feet. He performed a warrior caste salute: one hand over his heart. “I’ll petition the Shah. I can do it. I’m strong!”
“No!” Beg exclaimed, standing. “You’ve got that date with Mahtab, don’t you? I’ll go! I’m even stronger than you.”
Hashem smiled. “You’re both strong, talented spearsmen. Your devotion is inspiring, and I am proud of you, but this is something that I have to do.”
“It doesn’t make any sense!” Sadie whimpered, blinking furiously as moisture flooded her eyes. “The war is over! You’re not supposed to go away anymore. You’re supposed to stay with us...”
Aria burst into tears then, sobbing wretchedly. Hashem folded her into his arms, holding her close. “Shhh..” he whispered in her ear. “It’s okay. Everything will be okay.”
“It’s a great honor to fight for the Shah,” Jaleh reassured Sadie, reaching over the table to touch her daughter’s hand. Hashem grimaced uncomfortably.
Sadie flinched at the contact. She regretted it when she saw the hurt in her mother’s eyes, but spoke anyway. “I don’t care about honor or the Shah! I just don’t want dad to leave again...”
“It’s going to be alright, Sadie,” Jaleh said. Despite her words there was a weariness to her voice. She seemed so haggard all of a sudden, her age apparent in a way it usually wasn’t.
“But it won’t be!” Sadie cried. She realized she was yelling, sticky globs of moisture rolling down her face. “You don’t even know how long he’ll be gone!”
If everything was going to be okay, then why did her father look so troubled? Why did it feel like he wasn’t telling the whole story?
“Sadie, that’s enough!” Hashem barked. He softened when he saw Sadie’s uncontrollable sobs. Abed and Beg sat silently, their faces impassive. Both looked like they were trying not to cry, too.
Before her parents could say anything else, Sadie stood and fled the dinner table.
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