*Seven months ago*

Mayeen had waited long enough. She had learned all the skills she needed to succeed in her mission. Now, all she wanted was to meet her brother one last time and spend some quality time with him before embarking on her quest.

Finally, the day she had been waiting for arrived; the siblings met after years of staying apart. Everyone was happy. Bhallar even came close to giving up on the promise he had made to his father on the latter's death bed.

However, while her older brother was thinking about taking his family to Qulsairis and settling down, Mayeen was finalizing her escape plan. 

 One morning, barely a month after reuniting with Bhallar, Mayeen left home on the pretext of buying groceries.

Mayeen made sure to exit the city center unnoticed through a now-abandoned dog door, arriving at the outskirts, where she waited for the bounty hunters to show up. Once they did, she bumped into nearby stalls and got reprimanded, calling their attention to her.

As expected, no sooner did she exit the store, a stout man dressed in expensive-looking pearl white knee-length shirt with golden hems that matched his armlets started tailing her with two plainly dressed burly men in toe.

Mayeen felt a sense of accomplishment as she walked through the busy lanes halting at medical stores now and then before turning a corner that brought her to an abandoned street.

Seconds later, making sure that the girl was unaccompanied by friends and family, the man who was following her at a safe distance cornered her.

"Hey, beautiful." The stout man called, advancing on her, "Where is your family? You know a girl as gorgeous as you shouldn't roam the streets alone."

"My mother is waiting for me at home." Mayeen pretended to be scared and quailed slightly, looking helpless. "Please let me go to her," she begged, knowing precisely what her words would do to him.

The man gave her a once over. To him, she looked like easy prey. He held out his hand authoritatively, "I will consider your request if you show me your Family Card."

The Family Card was a piece of parchment with the royal seal. All free, blameless citizens were supposed to have one on their person. 

 Mayeen's Family Card was confiscated a few days after Atmoo had died. It was Tutuamen's doing. At least, that's what uncle Sharre had told her mama.

'Mayra, my child, the royal family blames Atmoo for the late pharaoh's death. They wanted all of you dead, but I pleaded to The Great Queen Mother on your behalf. She owed me a favor and has agreed to pardon you. But, from this day forward, you and your children will not be free citizens. I am here for your Family Cards.'

Mayeen was too young to understand the weight of the words then. Now, however, she was wiser.

Not having a family card meant that they were free to be captured, tortured, sold, or left to starve. They couldn't appeal to the government for any crimes committed against them. They were technically outlaws. 

Mayeen's family had managed to survive in the New Kingdom as free citizens until now was because the knowledge of her family surrendering their family card to the royal household was not known to many. 

"I... I don't have one." Mayeen stuttered and took a step back.

The man laughed, "Look, my dear, if you come with me, I promise you will spend the rest of your life in the lap of luxury. Have you heard of the pharaoh's harem?"

The confirmation that the man was indeed the one she was looking for, Mayeen smiled internally and glanced up at the man through her thick, dark lashes. Her words trembled with fear, "Pharaoh's harem?" she fringed ignorance about the existence of the place she had been dreaming about entering for over five years and asked innocently, "What about my mother?"

The bounty hunter crouched next to her; lifting up her chin, he gazed into her large, gold-rimmed eyes, mesmerized, "A true beauty you are, my sweet." Smiling, he added in a voice barely over a whisper, "You, my dear, we're born to make me a very...rich man."

Mayeen held the man's gaze and offered her sweetest smile. She reached for his hand and took it hers, "Will you take care of my mother if I come with you? You will, won't you?" she asked softly.

The bounty hunter's heart moved. He nodded, feeling a strong sense of affection towards the girl for reasons he couldn't put his finger on. "Once you are in the palace, you will be able to do it yourself."

Mayeen blinked; A soft smile, full of hope, touched the corner of her lips. Like a lamb being led to slaughter, she fringed ignorance, gave the bounty hunter's hand a gentle squeeze, and promised, "Then I will do my best to get inside the palace."

'I won't be able to forgive myself if I break the blind trust the sweet girl has placed in me.' Mayeen's abductor thought. The girl's untainted innocence and delicate flower-like ethereal beauty reminded him of a sister he had lost long ago. It made him decide then and there that he wouldn't let the girl get harassed by anyone till he delivered her to the head eunuch responsible for selecting girls for the harem.

Luckily for Mayeen, except for a minor incident, the journey to the capital proved smooth for Mayeen. The same couldn't be said for Hakni, the man who had promised to deliver her to the scout untouched. It took three days and four nights for them to cover the distance, which would otherwise have taken half a day.

On day two of their journey, sighing tiredly, Hakin had confessed. "Not all of them are as lovely and cooperative as you, my dear."

"Why, is that? Don't girls want to stay in the lap of luxury?" Mayeen had cocked her head and asked naively.

"Ah! my sweet. I will miss you dearly." Taking a swing of his ale from the jar he always kept at hand, Hakin had explained, "A concubine's life is not what everyone wants. Also, those not chosen for the harem are either sold into labor or to brothels."

Mayeen, playing her part to the T, had gasped. "Oh, no! Good sir, what will happen if I don't get chosen!?"

"I promised you a good life, did I not? If the pharaoh is stupid enough to reject you, I will bring your mother to the capital. I will take care of both of you."

To say that Hakin had grown attached to the girl he had abducted was an understatement. Without letting Mayeen know, or so he thought, he had ordered his men to fight off those who had dared to look at the young girl with filth in their eyes.

On the fourth day, just on the outskirts of the capital, two men from another group had succeeded in grabbing her veil that left her face and neck exposed. However, before they could even touch a hair on her head, Hakin had jumped in to save the day with his men.

Outnumbered, the perpetrators had fled, cursing Hakin and the bitch with the strange birthmark below her left ear.

Since that day, to deal with the physical and mental assault they had suffered at the hands of Hakin, the thugs now sat at alehouses gloating (lying) in detail about how pathetically a girl named Mayeen had died at the hands of the head eunuch.

On arriving at Qulsairis, Hakin and his men made their way inside the palace. Not much later, Mayeen was chosen by the head eunuch, much to Hakin's chagrin.

The head eunuch was not stupid, after all.

Mayeen wrapped her fingers around the tiny whistle dangling from a silver chain that 'brother' Hakin had gifted her. Thanking the said man and his subordinates for taking care of her, and without ever intending to use the musical instrument, she wore it around her neck.

With his eyes swimming with tears and his money pouch much heavier than it had ever been, Hakin sent the young girl away, but not before reassuring her that if she ever found herself in a situation where she felt threatened, she could count on him to save her.

'I am just a melody away, my sweet.' Hakin had reassured the girl after teaching her a tune on the flute just before reaching the palace.

Chuckling on the inside, Mayeen wiped her tears. Hakin didn't know how seriously she had taken his words to heart. He also wasn't aware that everything that he had let slip in a drunken state: his various other businesses, secret routes the man took to avoid taxes, tunnels that ran under the empire, and blueprints of the pharaoh's latest treasury that he had taken great pains to steal from a renowned architect's home, were now locked away in Mayeen's mind, where she planned to keep them till she needed them.

[Chapter word count: 1521;
Word count so far: 10183]