That wagon ride was the longest ride of Yasmin's life.
And not just because it was uncomfortable; she was used to discomfort, though the cramped space and bars made her feel like...like some animal on display. It was humiliating, but she supposed that was the point--and there wasn't much pride in a slave's life. But worse than that was the anxiety, the anticipation.
Because she wasn't the only one who had been summoned. Agrian had, too. Fidgeting, Yasmin picked at the skin around her fingernails and watched the wagon ahead of hers, wishing she could catch Agrian's eye, because he always seemed to have an answer, and right now she needed one. And even as she thought that, she hated herself a little for it, hated that she'd slipped up over the years and allowed herself to grow attached to the man--to view him, truly, as a friend and mentor, someone she could trust outside the arena, which was more than she could say about most people. It was a little embarrassing, this craving reassurance, but...
She just needed to know what made him so certain that they weren't both going to be executed, because he had seemed so confident in his answer when she'd expressed that fear earlier.
The wagons came to a halt before the palace, and by then she felt ready to shred the walls from sheer nerves. The palace was huge, making her feel ridiculously small in its shadow.
And within those walls, the Shah resided. And she held their very lives in her hands.
"Stop gawkin' and get out already! We don't got all day!" her master snapped, jerking her out of her daze. Climbing out of the wagon, Yasmin was relieved to be able to just stretch, but it was short-lived as her master gave her a push to get moving, and she saw that Agrian and his own master were already underway.
Yasmin met Agrian's eyes when he looked at her, gave a lopsided, nervous grin beneath her veil and wiggled her fingers in an awkward wave, hoping she didn't look as anxious as she felt. But then Agrian's master was shoving the man along and her own master followed suit. Yasmin winced at Agrian's fall--and noted that there were steps there, and watched herself so she, too, wouldn't take a spill with her master hastily pushing her along like she didn't know how to walk.
"You're to be on your best behavior," Yasmin heard her master say as they headed through a servant's entrance. "Ya hear? Try and act like an actual woman for once, if ya even know how. No funny business, no goofin' off..."
Yasmin couldn't help it. She laughed, a dry, closed-mouth laugh that came out in the form of a snort.
"Something funny about that?"
"This entire situation is funny, sir," Yasmin said. "How stupid you think I am, that you want me to be ladylike now, that I'd 'goof off' before the bloody Shah, that I might be executed for not being executed..." She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle more laughter--accidentally eating veil in the process. Which, of course, made her laugh harder. Tears sprang to her eyes and she shook her head, because nothing about this was funny, and even what she was laughing about was stupid, but her nerves were so frayed it was about the only thing she could do.
Because the alternative was screaming.
"It's hilarious."