Upon hearing this, the boys looked at each other with wide eyes and quickly scrambled back to the positions they had been sitting in previously. Shershah grabbed a book at random and flopped into a chair while Kal situated himself at the writing desk, pulling out his calligraphy notebook and pretending to be hard at work.
Soon the door opened and Master Hafiz entered; an uncharacteristically solemn expression evident on his visage. “Ah, boys, good, you’re hard at work.” He said, surprised. “So, I just wanted to let you boys know that the child you saw arrive in that dreadful state has been healed and Prince Mukhallad, his majesty will probably be coming to look him over soon. Lord Shershah, your father will probably accompany him so until then I will assign you some work to complete.”
Soon after, the boys could hear voices announcing the presence of His Majesty, and his retinue. Prince Mukhallad made as if to get up and go to his father, however, Master Hafiz reprimanded him, and he sat back down. He waited to see if his father would call him up; however, it was all in vain, since the Badshah left without even seeing his son’s face.
The next few days followed the same pattern; it seemed to the boys as if everyone had forgotten about both Kal and Sher. In the morning, they were shuffled off to a small room in the tower with only Master Hafiz for company, in the afternoons, their parents let them roam as they liked, with no one to question what it was that they were up to. All of the adults were stuck on that stupid new kid, with no time for them. Sher could tell that Kal was getting more and more frustrated, acting out more and more.
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