* * *
Kedah went back and forth to his country often. Usually they were short visits, so that he didn’t get embroiled in a row, but he was a regular visitor and so as he stepped out of the plane he knew what to expect.
Or he thought he did.
But this time, as Kedah stepped from the plane it was to the sound of cheering. From beyond the palace walls the people of Zazinia had gathered to cheer their Prince home.
They wanted Kedah to rule one day, and it was their way of letting the Accession Council know that he was the people’s choice.
Kedah would make the better King.
‘Kedah!’ Rina embraced him, but she had a question to ask. ‘Why now?’
‘Because the elders have long wanted Mohammed and it is time to put this to rest once and for all.’ He stepped back. ‘I have some work to do. I shall be in my wing.’
‘Kedah...’ Omar came out to greet his son.
‘I would like to speak with you,’ Kedah told him.
‘Of course,’ the King agreed. ‘I have much to discuss with you also. Come through to my office.’
‘I would prefer that we speak in mine,’ Kedah responded but Omar shook his head.
‘We shall meet in mine.’
‘I have something I want you to see.’ Kedah refused to be dissuaded. ‘I will go and prepare for you now.’
He didn’t even turn his head to address Felicia.
He just summoned her in a brusque tone and gave that annoying flick of his wrist.
He offered a small bow to his parents and walked off, with Felicia a suitable distance behind him.
Up the palace steps they went, past the statue where as a child Kedah had hidden, and then past the guards and down a long corridor. Felicia understood now why he wanted these offices destroyed, for events there had caused so much pain, and possibly were about to cause more—not just for Kedah, but for his family and the people.
He closed the heavy door behind them and dealt with the projector and computer as Felicia pulled on gloves and pulled out a decanter and glasses and filled them.
‘If he asks for another drink don’t top it up—let him do it. You don’t want anything from you on this glass.’
‘He’ll call for a maid to do it,’ Kedah said. ‘He is King.’
Felicia was confident that Omar would not be calling for a maid. After all, she had seen the presentation and had no doubt Omar would sit transfixed as he watched it, just as she had.
‘Are you nervous?’ she asked, and then went to correct herself. Of course he wasn’t nervous—Kedah never was. Yet he surprised her.
‘Yes.’
It was possibly the most honest he had ever been. In some ways more open than he had ever been, even in bed. She went straight over to him and as easily as that he accepted her in his arms.
Kedah took a long, steadying breath as she leant on his chest. Here, once the scene of such devastation, he found a moment of peace.
‘I’m sure the result will be as you wish it to be.’
‘No one has seen my work before...’
‘Kedah?’ She looked up to him. ‘It might not count for much, but I’ve seen it and, for what it’s worth, I thought it was amazing.’
He was about to say that he hadn’t meant it like that—more that no one important had seen it—but then, as he stood there, holding her, it dawned on him that the presentation had been watched by someone very important to him.
‘Did you watch it all the way through?’
‘Yes.’
‘And...?’
‘The truth?’ Felicia checked, and he nodded.
‘I saw it first by mistake and I have watched it many times since. The designs are stunning, Kedah.’
‘I thought you said my work was impersonal?’ he teased, and Felicia looked up.
‘Your vision for Zazinia isn’t work.’
It was everything.
There was the sound of the guards standing to attention and, when he would have preferred to hold her for a moment longer, Kedah had no choice but to let her go.
Felicia’s eyes were glassy and, rather than let him see, she busied herself, walking over to check the projector was set up correctly and that everything was in place.
And then the door opened and in came Omar the King.
‘Thank you for coming,’ Kedah said, and he stood proudly. He had possibly been preparing for this moment for most of his adult life. Not just the confrontation, but sharing his vision for Zazinia with his father. ‘I have something I would like you to see.’
‘Not without first hearing your choice.’ Omar thrust a bundle of files onto Kedah’s desk. ‘This is a shortlist of suitable brides.’
Even though Omar spoke in Arabic, this was not something Kedah wanted to discuss with a certain person present. ‘Felicia, could you excuse us, please?’
‘Of course.’
Omar hadn’t even noticed that a lowly assistant was present, but he simply stood until she had left and the door closed quietly behind her.
Kedah broke the silence.
‘If I choose a bride, then I shall have your full support at the Accession Council tomorrow?’ he checked, and then let out a mirthless laugh at his father’s lack of response.
He knew for certain that his father was bluffing, for he saw a rare nervous swallow from him as he reached for the files as if to peruse them.
‘I need to know that, once I’m married, I shall have your approval to make the necessary changes...’
‘First things first,’ Omar said.
‘Isn’t that what your father said to you?’ Kedah asked. ‘Choose a bride, produce an heir, and then we can talk?’
Omar did not respond.
‘Yet nothing got done, and all these years later still there is little progress in Zazinia...’
‘I ensured an improved education system,’ Omar interjected. ‘I pushed for that.’ Yet both men knew that he had pushed for little more. ‘The King did not want change,’ Omar said.
‘What about this King?’ Kedah asked, but again there was no response. ‘Please,’ Kedah said, ‘have a seat.’
He dimmed the lights in the office and took a seat himself as the presentation commenced.
Kedah looked over to his father, but the King gave no comment—though he did, Kedah noted, take a sip of his drink. And, while that was supposed to be the reason they were there, suddenly his father’s reaction to the presentation was more important to Kedah.
Felicia had been right. His father needed to see this.
And there it all played out.
Like golden snakes, roads wove across the screen and bridges did what they were designed to—bridged. Access was given to the remote west, where the poorest people fought to survive, and somehow it all connected.
Schools and hospitals appeared, and within the animation teachers, doctors and nurses walked. There were animated children too, playing in parks. Now, hotels rose, and there were pools. Restaurants and cafés appeared on bustling evening streets.
And