Xámza

Chapter 21 Hyena Man

"It is time you..."
"...confront my fate," came her reply.

The Sultan stopped, turned to Amaris Dahia once more and said, "You will confront the Jackal. I have no concern for your fate, or mine. It is their fate that I care about."

"Why do you so easily entrust their future to me? You don't believe I am the Kahina anymore than you believe in yourself."

"Listen well, Dahia el Kahina—if that is who you say you are. I learned long ago to put my faith in forces beyond my control. And the destruction of this land is far beyond the control of an old fraud like me." The night air filled with the sound of distant cackling. "The Hyena Man is plying his trade," observed the Sultan.

"I met your great-aunt Lali Sol in Tangier," said Amaris Dahia, surprising him.
"Is her needlework as beautiful as ever?"
"I am afraid she is no longer able to embroider."
"Why not? What has happened to her?"
"She is a fish. I pulled her from the sea in a net."