by Alina Boyden
Sikander’s eyes widened. “She’s dead?”
“She is,” I affirmed. “And Kadiro is ours.”
“How?” he wondered.
“There will be time to tell you later,” I said, and I would tolerate no more distractions then, because Lakshmi was still sleeping soundly in her bed, looking so peaceful. She was safe. God, I would give Sikander such rewards for keeping Karim away from her if we all survived this.
I sat on the bed beside her and stroked her hair gently, knowing that would wake her up, but it wouldn’t scare her. Sure enough, she cracked an eye open and caught sight of me, her vision a bit dazed at first, but after a second she sat upright and threw her arms around my neck. “Akka!”
“Shh . . .” I whispered. “Karim can’t know I’m here. We have to leave now, okay?”
“Is Sikander coming with us?” she asked.
“He is,” I agreed.
“Good.” She smiled, and I wondered at that. But I supposed he’d kept her safe in a scary new place. He’d protected her. He hadn’t beaten her or yelled at her. He’d been the bodyguard that he never was for me.
“We’re going to have to climb out,” I whispered. “Arjun is waiting up there with Padmini to take you with him.”
“Prince Arjun is here?” She seemed thrilled by that for a moment, but then she frowned. “But what about Mohini?”
I took a deep breath, because this was the hard part. “We’ll have to come back for Mohini.”
Lakshmi shook her head. “No, Akka, we can’t—”
I held a hand over her mouth, because she was shouting. I pulled her up against me tightly. “We can’t shout. Prince Karim will kill us. His father will kill us. We have to be quiet, okay?”
I let go of her mouth when she nodded her agreement, but that didn’t stop her from voicing her protest in quieter tones. “Okay, but I’m not leaving Mohini!”
“Lakshmi—” I began, but I was interrupted by Viputeshwar.
“If I may, your highness, I might have a solution,” he said, keeping his voice soft and quiet.
I frowned. Viputeshwar had been kind to me, but he had raised both Karim and Ahmed from children. He was loyal to Mahisagar, and I had murdered his queen and admitted as much in front of him.
He seemed to sense my thoughts, because he said, “I know you don’t think you can trust me, your highness, and I can’t blame you, but I ask you to remember what I told you about my sister, remember how I felt then when I told you that story, and realize that Sikander just told me tonight what Karim did to you, what he has been doing to you.”
My mind went back to that conversation, weeks ago in the palace of Rajkot, and I remembered the rage in his eyes, the anguish in his voice, and the strength in his arms when he had spoken of the client who had murdered his sister. The one he’d had butchered like a goat. I nodded then. Maybe I could trust him. “What is this solution of yours?”
“Lakshmi is a hostage here, it’s true,” he said, “but I am not, and neither is Sikander. Ahmed and Karim both believe that Sikander is committed to this alliance. I could take him to the stables on the pretense of caring for the zahhaks. No one will challenge us. We will take Mohini and Parisa, and we will fly them wherever you need them.”
“The coast due north. There are cliffs.”
“I know the place, your highness,” Viputeshwar assured me.
“And you can fly an acid zahhak?” I asked.
“I can, your highness,” he said. “And Lakshmi has already shown me Mohini. We’ve become acquainted. And Parisa will prevent me from being eaten if Sikander is there.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “The two of you get to the stables now. I’ll get Lakshmi to the roof. She can ride Padmini back to the cliffs, and then get Mohini back.” I looked to Lakshmi. “All right?”
She bobbed her head. “Yes, Akka.”
I sighed, glad to have that settled, because it meant we’d have two more zahhaks for the coming battle. “You two get moving. Stay safe. I’ll get Lakshmi to the roof.” To her, I said, “Put your climbing shoes on.”
She hurried to do it while Viputeshwar smiled and shook his head ruefully, and Sikander just seemed confused. He bowed his head to me. “I feel like I don’t know you at all, your highness.”
“You don’t,” I agreed. “But if you get Parisa and you help me fight Karim and Ahmed, I’ll give you the chance to learn as much about me as you like, Sikander.”
“I would be honored, your highness.” He hugged me again, like he had when I was little, and it broke my heart, but I tried not to show it. I had to stay strong. I had to get us out of this mess and then I could think about how I felt about things. Until then, I needed to keep focused on the mission, needed to get Lakshmi somewhere safe.
I hugged Sikander back and whispered, “I’ll see you shortly.” Then I let him go, and he and Viputeshwar stepped out of the room, closing the door firmly behind them.
“All right, sweetheart,” I told Lakshmi, taking her hand and leading her to the window. “We’re going to have to climb up to the roof. It’s not far, but I want you to use the rope, so tie it around yourself the way your tutor taught you, okay?”
“Yeah, okay, Akka,” she agreed, rolling her eyes, like she couldn’t believe what a fuss I was making about having to climb a heavily defended watchtower in the dead of night under threat of almost certain death. I smiled. She was growing up.
She tied the ropes with as much aplomb as I had shown, and then stepped to the edge of the window, preparing to start her climb. But at that moment, I heard the metal handle of the door rattling against the stone wall, and I turned, expecting to see Sikander or Viputeshwar returning for something they had forgotten. Instead, I heard a very familiar voice saying, “Lakshmi, honey, are you asleep?” And Karim Shah stepped into the room, a familiar, hungry look in his dark eyes.
CHAPTER 28
Razia!” Karim gasped, his eyes going wide.
My katars were in my hands in an instant, my fists clenched tightly around their handles, rage in my heart. I’d been right. I’d been right the whole time. I looked over my shoulder to where Lakshmi was standing uncertainly on the ledge of the windowsill, and I said, “Lakshmi, sweetie, you need to climb. Akka will handle this.”
Lakshmi nodded, and she started climbing. She knew that Karim wasn’t her friend, had known it for a while now. As she disappeared up the tower, I watched Karim draw his sword from its scabbard, his lip curling with scorn.
“You think you can fight me?” he scoffed, puffing out his chest, as if to show me how much bigger and stronger he was. Not that he needed to. I was fully aware of how dangerous he was. His mistake was not knowing how dangerous I was.
“I killed your mother,” I told him, because I knew that would unhinge him, that it would get in his head and make him sloppy. “I blew her away with a cannon. There’s nothing left of her but sludge.”
The stunned look on his face told me that he hadn’t realized I’d taken Kadiro. He’d thought this was a desperate escape attempt, that I’d sneaked out of Kadiro in secret to get Lakshmi out of his clutches. Well, I seized the opportunity to land the first strike, and I punched straight at his hateful face with my katars. He barely managed to parry the punch with the hilt of his sword, but that left him open, and I punched for his chest with a strong left that he hadn’t expected.
Karim twisted and staggered back, taking the punch as a slice that opened up a wide gash on his biceps, red blood spilling across his skin and staining his green sleeve dark brown. And then the little coward cried, “Guards!”
I punched again and again, driving him back toward the door, forcing him to frantically parry and stagger away from the razor-sharp points of my katars. In the tight confines of the room, I had every conceivable advantage with my two short weapons against his one longer one, and that advantage doubled when we reached the doorwa
y, where he didn’t have room to take a swing. But I wasn’t trying to kill him. Oh, if I could, I would have, but I heard the footsteps in the hallway, and I knew my window for escape was closing fast. They’d be able to shoot me off the wall if I had to climb back up, rope or no rope. And the longer it took me to get away, the higher the odds that they’d saddle their zahhaks and attack. Even with the altitude disadvantage, our top cover couldn’t stop all of them.
So I threw one last punch for Karim’s neck to get a little space, and then I raced for the window as fast as my feet would carry me. He was stumbling back, so it took him a second to reverse direction, but then his long legs ate up ground faster than I’d thought they would. I was at the window, but with the katars in my hands there was no way to climb without throwing them down, and if I did that, I’d be helpless.
Karim kept his distance as guardsmen came rushing in, holding swords and shields. No toradars, that was a piece of luck. They must have thought they’d be worthless in such close confines. But even without muskets, they would cut me to pieces before I ever found my first foothold on the wall. I could see that now. There was no way out.
“Did you really kill my mother?” Karim growled, his whole body shaking with rage, his sword twitching from the tension in his fist.
I briefly considered lying, but I knew it wouldn’t work, so I just smiled and said, “I did. And I enjoyed it. And Kadiro has been taken. All of your men are dead. Did you really think I would marry you? I’d rather die.”
“Well, you’ll get your wish,” he assured me, leveling the point of his sword at my chest, though he was several feet too far away to thrust it home. “You can either surrender and die swiftly, or you can fight and die slowly. Your choice.”
He wasn’t wrong. I was going to die. I saw that now. This had been one desperate act too far. I had been too reckless. But I’d saved Lakshmi. Arjun would care for her like his own sister. Sikander would protect her. Hina would treat her like a little princess in a newly freed Zindh. They didn’t need me anymore. They would be okay.
“Your choice, Razia,” Karim growled, taking a small step forward, his men following his lead, cutting the distance just that little bit shorter. “Quick or slow, what’s it going to be?”
I considered that for a moment, and then I realized that there was one last chance. One last hope. I stepped back, pressing myself up against the window, making sure that I was well positioned for what I was about to do, and then I sheathed my katars, noting Karim’s triumphant grin. But before he could step forward to plunge his firangi through my heart, I said, “If I’m going to die today, Karim, then it’s going to be on my terms—not yours.” And I flung myself out the window.
CHAPTER 29
Sultana!” I shrieked at the top of my lungs as I tumbled backward out the window, snatching the rope and swinging along the side of the tower, kicking with my legs, running as far as I could before the rope went taut. I braced myself for what was coming.
“Sultana! Here, girl!” I cried as men began poking their heads out of the windows of the tower to see what was going on. The sun was just starting to peek above the horizon, and I saw the muzzles of rifles appear. I couldn’t stay here any longer. I had to let go. So I kicked off hard, and I swung.
The wind roared in my ears and pulled at my clothes as I raced in a sweeping arc beside the tower, holding the rope with both hands, my legs dangling free below me. I accelerated, faster and faster, until the rope pulled me skyward once more, and I let go, the momentum carrying me clear of the tower, hurling me out into empty space. I screamed Sultana’s name one last time out of sheer desperation, and then I spread my arms wide, bracing myself for the long plummet to the ground.
But the ground vanished, replaced by bright blue scales, and my arms went around a familiar neck, holding on for dear life as azure wings spread wide, catching the wind and pulling us higher and higher into the sky. I let loose a cry of sheer, panicked joy, heedless of the muskets shooting at us, knowing they didn’t have a prayer of hitting us, but then Sultana beat her wings and nearly jostled me off her back, and I realized that if I was going to survive, I was going to have to find some way of getting into my saddle. The trouble was, if I loosened my grip on her scales at all, I was sure I was going to fall. But even I didn’t have the grip strength to make it all the way to shore clinging to my zahhak’s neck scales.
I chanced a look behind me at the saddle, so tantalizingly close, and yet so impossibly far away. It was just a few feet. I thought I could get to it if I just eased myself back, but if I slipped off . . . I shuddered to think about what would happen if I did that. But my fingers were burning, and my muscles were aching. If I didn’t try it now, I’d never survive this.
I took one or two quick breaths to work up the courage, and then I relaxed my grip on Sultana’s scales, pushing myself back toward the saddle. I expected to slide smoothly and gracefully back to the base of the saddle, and then I’d be able to work my way into it and secure myself with the straps, but that wasn’t what happened at all. Instead, the wind shoved me right off the side of her neck, and into open air once more.
I waited for the rush of the wind, for the plummet earthward, but what I got was a sharp set of teeth snatching me out of the air. I cringed, stifling a scream, horrified and frightened and sure that I was going to be the only zahhak rider in history to be devoured by her own mount, but somehow none of Sultana’s teeth cut me. She kept such fine control over her jaw that aside from my whole midsection being covered in her slobber, I was none the worse for wear.
I couldn’t believe it. I was so thrilled to be alive and so shocked I wasn’t dead and so scared and so happy all at once that I just started crying as she carried me away in her mouth, flapping over the water without a care in the world. Of course, clutched in her jaws, I could see that jammed in between two of her teeth were the tattered bits of cloth and the shredded flesh of the Mahisagari guardsmen she’d bitten a few minutes earlier, and I felt both a little sickened at the sight, and profoundly grateful that I’d been so good to her when she was little.
“Razia?” Arjun exclaimed. “Are you all right?”
I glanced up, somewhat mortified to see Arjun, flying with Lakshmi in his rear gunner’s seat, atop Padmini’s back just a few feet off Sultana’s wing. Of course, I was seeing them all upside down because that was the way Sultana had grabbed me, but I was lucky to be seeing anything at all, considering the circumstances.
“Hello, my prince,” I said, giving him a sheepish wave. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“That was so amazing, Akka,” Lakshmi shouted at me, “until you fell off!”
“Yes, she should definitely have practiced that part a little harder,” Arjun agreed, and he was smiling now that it was clear I wasn’t hurt, though the anxiety in his voice would have been hard to miss.
“Razia, are you hurt?” Sakshi cried as Ragini dove down, flaring her wings and the scales of her hood to slow herself enough not to go flying right past us.
“No, Sultana is very gentle when she wants to be,” I said, frankly not believing it myself.
“Well, the Mahisagaris aren’t going to give us much time to regroup,” she warned, casting a glance over her shoulder at the fortress of Ahura, where a colorful cyclone of red and green zahhaks was swirling up from the courtyard. We were several miles away, but it was a long flight to the coast, and if we gave up our altitude to land and regroup, there was a chance we might not be able to get it back again, though I thought I had a plan for that.
I looked around for Sikander and Viputeshwar, breathing a sigh of relief when I spotted them on the other side of Sultana’s head, though it hurt to lift myself up enough to see over her, and she seemed to not like it when I moved, her grip on me tightening ever so slightly, the pressure of her teeth a painful but ultimately harmless warning—the sort of thing she might do to one of her babies if she’d felt the need to carry it in her
mouth. Of course, I wasn’t armored like a zahhak, so I went limp rather than risking a sterner rebuke.
“Is everything all right, your highness?” Sikander shouted.
“Fine!” I shouted back, heaving a very audible sigh. I crossed my arms over my chest, uncomfortable, and a bit embarrassed, but mostly just grateful that I was alive, and so were my loved ones. Whether any of us survived the day, though, that was an open question.
“You’re crazy!” Tamara shouted as she dove down to join us, with the rest of the top cover. She looked to Sakshi and asked, “She’s really always like that?”
“Always,” said Sakshi, her stern disapproval evident even through the roar of the slipstream in our ears.
“When I heard you scaled the cliffs of Shikarpur bare-handed, I didn’t really believe it fully,” Haider confessed to me, Roshanak flying about a dozen feet above me, so that I was looking straight up into his face as he looked down into mine. “But now I’m half-convinced you simply leapt to the top like a hero from a fairy tale.”
“I’m flattered,” I said, “but I climbed like an ordinary mortal.”
“She climbed,” Arjun agreed, his goggle-shrouded eyes lingering on my face, a smile spreading across his lips, “but not like a mortal, and certainly not an ordinary one.”
My cheeks burned, and I vowed that if we survived all of this, I was going to make up for all the time we’d lost these last few weeks. I would find us a tall tower where nobody could interrupt us, and I wouldn’t come out for at least a month.
“So do we have a plan, your highness?” Sikander asked, and I realized I hadn’t told him anything yet. He didn’t know about the rebellion in Kadiro, and he didn’t know about the cannons mounted on the river zahhaks, though he was looking with interest at the ones on the backs of the fire zahhaks flying with us.
“We do,” I replied.
He grunted. “I presume those swivel guns were your brilliant scheme?”
