"Make him think you don't love him!"
"I would never, never do that, your Majesty!" Ariel cried, shocked.
"You think that just because he calls anda a princess that anda are worthy of that title?"
"Sire, anda are much mistaken in your beliefs! I cinta Ramses lebih than I can possibly say!"
"You...love...him?"
"Yes, very much."
"Prove it."
The words were soft and dangerous. Ariel trembled. "What...what do anda mean?"
"Prove to me that anda cinta him and are worthy to be his wife."
"But...how?"
"Leave him."
"What?!"
"Hurt him. Abandon him. Make him think anda don't cinta him."
"How...how will that...? I don't understand."
"If anda do that, I will believe that anda cinta him."
"But..." Seti was tricky, Ariel knew that from experience. "If I do leave him, you'll accuse me of not loving him and convince him that it's true! I just know it!"
"Will anda not risk that to be with him?"
Sobbing, Ariel fled from the room. She does not cinta him, Seti thought to himself, scoffing...
Ariel was still crying as she went back to her room. When she had cried enough tears to flood the Nile again, she pulled herself together. What does Seti want me to do? she thought, miserably to herself.
"Ariel?" It was Ramses, outside her door. She jumped up at once, uncertain of herself. "Come in!" she called.
"Ariel, are you-?" He was cut off in mid-sentence as she threw herself bodily at him. "Oh, Ramses! What have I done?"
"What are anda talking about?"
She made a quick decision. It would hurt her and him too, but perhaps then Seti would see how much they loved one another. "I've done anda wrong. I'm so sorry."
"What? No, anda haven't!"
"I have, I have, Ramses! I've made a terrible error of judgment!"
"What? What do anda mean?" He looked into her eyes. She felt tears welling inside her but she bit them back.
"Oh, Ramses..." she pulled away from him. "I need to leave this frightful place. I need to be free." Yes, that was it; her freedom. "I feel smothered here all of a sudden. I need to go."
"Right." He was startled oleh her sudden outburst but he shook aside all negative thoughts. "Then we'll leave, Ariel; if that's what anda want. We'll run away together-"
"No! No, I need to be alone!" she stammered.
"Ariel?" Ramses touched her arm. Ariel ceased her hurried packing and turned to look at him. The concern in his eyes cut into her heart. "What's my father been saying to you?" he asked, suspiciously.
Ariel took a deep breath. "He's made me see sense. I was so foolish, so silly!" She let out a false giggle that caused Ramses to raise an eyebrow. "My head was so muddled..."
"What are anda saying, Ariel?"
"I've been leading anda on, Ramses."
"No!"
"Yes, I have!"
"No! I don't believe it!" Ramses slammed his hands on the table, causing everything upon it to rattle. "This is my father's doing!"
"No! It's my own! I'm so sorry!"
"Ariel, stop this!" Ramses caught her oleh the arms, staring into her eyes. "You know that what you're saying isn't true!"
"It is true, Ramses!"
"No, Ariel!"
"Every word of it is true!"
"This is my father's doing!"
"No, it isn't!"
"Look me in the eyes and tell me anda don't cinta me!"
For a detik she almost faltered. Ramses looked at her, imploringly, waiting for her to admit that this was all a pack of lies and she truly loved him; he was looking at her with all the cinta that she felt in her jantung for him. But Seti wanted it this way and if it was the only way...could she risk it all for love, true love?
Yes, yes, she could.
Ariel looked straight into his eyes; never blinking, never faltering. "I don't cinta you."
Ramses dropped his arms, staring at her in disbelief. "No...no, Ariel..."
A sob caught in her throat as she snatched up her bag. "I'm sorry! I really am!"
"You don't cinta me?"
"No!" This last was a moan as she fled from the room...
"Father!" Ramses stormed into the room to where Seti was standing, talking to Hotep and Huy. "Father, what have anda been saying to her?"
"She is not worthy of you, son," Seti replied, bluntly.
"That's for me to judge!" Ramses shouted.
"She's gone, isn't she? Is that proof that she loves you?"
"You got to her, didn't you? anda knew she'd leave if anda manipulated her enough, didn't you?"
"Are anda accusing me of putting ideas in the silly girl's head?"
"You know I am; and she isn't silly! She's confused, because of you!"
"She doesn't cinta you!"
"She does! She told me so!"
"She was delusional!"
"How dare you? How dare anda tell me who to love?"
"She isn't-!"
But whatever Ariel wasn't, Ramses never found out; for, to the surprise of everyone, he grabbed his father oleh the front of his tunic, his eyes ablaze with fury. "She's gone because of anda I loved her and anda took her away from me; anda ruined the best thing that has ever happened to me!"
Running through the dunes, Ariel suddenly stumbled and fell down. Catching her breaths, she began to cry again as she looked up at the palace she was leaving behind. Her home, her friends, her lover...
A sudden memory struck her, of being lost. She, Ramses and Moses had been playing Tag in the palace and she was it. But she had become lost in the tangled maze of rooms and eventually ended up in the Embalming Chambers. That had scared her, the dead bodies in bandages and the people in Anubis masks and the jars of goodness knows what, so she had run away but become lost again. She could remember calling out and crying as she ran through door after door, one room looking exactly the same as another. And then a hand touched her shoulder and she turned with a gasp. It was Ramses. "Hey, Ariel, anda alright?" Sobbing, she had pressed against him and he had hugged her. "Hey, it's ok."
"I was lost!" she sobbed. "I couldn't find you
"Ok, well, don't worry; you're aman, brankas now. We'll find Moses and my mother and it'll be ok, you'll see."
How could she leave him after that?
"I must be strong!" Ariel declared, scrambling to her feet, all thoughts of running away abandoned. "I won't give him up! Ramses, I'm coming back to you!"
As she ran, all her gambar of Ramses played before her in her mind; as a child, a through their youth, now as he was, the strong, kind, fun, loving man that she loved so well; who needed her.
"Ramses!" Seti brushed him off. "You're mad, boy!"
"Perhaps, but I am in love! And no matter what anda say, I will have Ariel as my wife!"
"She doesn't cinta you!"
"Yes I do!" Ariel cried from the doorway. Ramses turned. "Ariel!"
Throwing down her bag, Ariel darted into his waiting arms. "I do cinta you! I cinta anda so much! I'm so sorry I hurt you! I'm sorry!"
Ramses kissed her rapidly. "I knew anda did, Ariel; I knew anda couldn't mean it, my darling."
"I'm sorry!" she wept, as he continued to ciuman her. "I do cinta you; I cinta you! I cinta you!"
"I know, I know. I cinta anda too."
Ariel pulled away from him to look defiantly at Seti. "You can try all anda like to cast me aside atau convince me that I can never be right for your son; but I won't give him up. I will never give him up! Beat me, hang me, do whatever anda please but nothing will ever, ever stop me from loving Ramses!"
"And anda won't keep me from wanting to marry Ariel, either!" Ramses snapped, putting his arm around Ariel's waist and pressing her close to his body.
Seti stared at them both in surprise; he was absolutely flabbergasted. "Well," he said, when he could finally speak, and "Well," and that was all he could say.
"When do anda think he'll calm down?" Ariel asked. It was midnight and the pair of them were sitting on one of the great statues in the temple. Ariel was half-reclining with her back to Ramses; her body pressing into his front, her head resting against his chest, fingers entwined with his own, dreamily.
"Oh, I give him until selanjutnya spring, my princess," Ramses murmured. Ariel smiled. "You know," he added, playing with a lock of her hair, gently teasing it with his fingers, "I really didn't believe that anda couldn't cinta me, although anda were very convincing."
"I know. I'm sorry. Your father, he..."
"I know."
"I just thought...maybe it would make him see...but I could never leave you. I know that now."
"Good; because I can't beruang to be parted from you."
"Ramses..."
"Yes, my princess?"
"I cinta you."
He kissed the puncak, atas of her head. "I cinta anda too. Ariel?"
"Yes?"
"That's twice I've called anda my princess and you've not objected to it."
"I know. But it will be true soon, so I don't mind so much any more."
He smiled. "Then I shall call anda my princess forevermore...Princess."
"I won't give him up!"
