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Altair took the jug and towel the boy offered with ahis face, he heard the boy gulp audibly

"A-Alshaykh" S-Sheikh

The horror in the boy's eyes made him raise a brow "That bad?"

Ahmad could only nod The wound on the sheikh's face was still viciously raw, its edges crusted with blood, and ran from the sheikh's left eyelid all the way down to his jaw It was almost as if someone had wished to carve off half of the sheikh's face, and theanew

"Maehdina, alshaykh" I'm sorry, sheikh "It is very bad"

To which the sheikh only smiled, and when he spoke, his ansas just as cryptic "Good"

Ahood about the sheikh's disfigurement, but he also knew better than to point this out

Altair briefly relayed instructions for the boy, and Ahmad, chest now puffed with pride, bowed to the sheikh and proed the boith a grave nod The boy was never to know that his errand was only ive Altair a private moment

And now that he was finally alone

The sheikh turned to his attention back to the last eance

It was over

Although the sah the hts did not bring him a similar sense of peace There was neither relief nor triuhts had little to do with the Sand Wars itself

For Altair, today's battle was entirely personal: as over was a proiven and a promise kept, and as soon as his eyes slowly closed, the past yanked him back into its tortuous embrace

He enty again, his father was dying, and it was all his fault

Fuck Fuck Fuck

Even now, Altair couldn't bear the memories of Hadwin's death, and the sheikh forced his eyes open and gritted his teeth as he willed himself to focus instead on the black-and-white harshness of the present