Sultan’s Legacy

In Mother Goose is Dead

A poorly conceived wish sends a restless heir to discover all is not right with his beloved father’s sultanate.


Mother Goose is Dead
Sultan’s Legacy, a short story that shows the influence of my years in the Middle East, once appeared in the Mother Goose is Dead anthology from Damnation Books. The anthology was available in both print and eBook but is no longer in print.



Excerpt

Rashid, the heir to the sultanate and possessor of as many names as he had worthless ceremonial duties, climbed the dusty steps that spiraled around the west-most minaret, one of the four highest places in his father’s palace.

He’d spent the morning much like any other, listening to his father dispense wisdom and justice in equal measures. No matter how minor the concern, the sultan showed no sign of impatience or dismissal. A sigh breezed past Rashid’s lips and his inhale turned into a cough as he kicked up some of the ever present dust.

His father needed him at the audiences as much as the muezzin needed this minaret. The sultan didn’t need him at the meetings with the ministers, either. He always had a seat to warm whenever foreigners came offering gifts, but was that to be his purpose the length of his father’s rule?