Because I would always be more selfish than Ahmed.
*
It took us three days of sailing to reach the northern edge of Miraji, and another two before we were close to port again. As we sailed towards Ghasab, we passed near enough to the coast that the shadow of the middle mountains fell over the ship. Everyone came on deck to watch as we sailed by, crossing the frontier from eastern Miraji to west, a long way from where we’d crossed over the other way.
We were close.
So close to getting Rahim to his army, to snatching them away from Bilal and marching them on Izman.
I’d only been to the port city of Ghasab once – twice if you counted the time I was dragged through it unconscious by my aunt. But I hadn’t exactly got to see much of it then.
Ahmed sent the twins out ahead to report back the day before we would dock. It might be a few days to Iliaz on foot but it was only a few short hours as the shape-shifting falcons flew. They were back before sundown. Maz landed on the crow’s nest and scrambled down the mast in the shape of a monkey, while Izz misjudged his landing and catapulted into a roll that only didn’t break his neck because he became a snake at the last second before turning into a very naked boy at our feet.
Izz reached us first. ‘There’s an army,’ he said breathlessly, yet with a wide-eyed look that couldn’t quite hide his exhilaration at beating Maz to us.
‘Were you two racing?’ Shazad asked, tossing Izz a shirt, which he tied around his middle, for our sake.
Izz beamed momentarily. ‘I won.’
‘I can see that,’ Shazad said, handing a pair of trousers to a disgruntled-looking Maz, as he reached the bottom of the mast and changed back to a boy. ‘What’s this about an army?’
‘Iliaz,’ Maz said, fastening his trousers. ‘There’s an army camped at the western base of the mountains, by the look of it.’
‘There are blue flags,’ Izz added.
‘The Gallan,’ I said, feeling my blood go cold. ‘What are they doing here?’ I’d found my seasickness was better if I stayed on deck, where the air was less stale. And the plants Ahmed had given me had helped some. I’d taken to sleeping above deck, falling asleep under the stars. Jin was usually there at night, too, manning this monstrous ship I didn’t understand or like with the whole of his attention.
I’d been avoiding him ever since Zaahir had kissed me, since any temptation to kiss him would be a decision bigger than I was ready to make right now.
‘Probably running a supply route to Izman through the mountains.’ Rahim crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against one of the huge masts. ‘It’s what I would do if I were laying siege to the city. You’d think they’d have the decency to stay out of our country while we fight this out among ourselves.’
‘How many?’ Shazad asked, growing grave now. She checked around quickly, making sure no one else on board was close enough to hear.
Izz and Maz traded sheepish looks. Izz scratched his blue hair, making it stick up at the back as he faced us. ‘A lot?’ he guessed.
‘I’d say at least twice that many.’ Maz nodded along seriously.
‘So too many to fight outright,’ Jin interpreted for the rest of us.
‘Any way we can walk through under an illusion?’ Shazad turned to our Demdji princess.
‘I don’t think I can hide this many people.’ Delila chewed her lip as she glanced around. ‘Six people is one thing, but we’re close to three hundred now.’
The wind off the water picked up, riffling its fingers through all of our hair, dashing a few stray strands over our general’s face, deep in thought.
‘We could fly over them.’ Ahmed was pressing that spot on his hairline again.
‘Only in small numbers, though,’ Jin pointed out, leaning on the helm as we moved gently through the water. I stared out across the narrow band of sparkling blue ocean. We had finished passing the mountain now. The coast wasn’t green fields and orchards of sweet fruits any more. It was blistering golden sand. It was desert. My desert.
‘It would take too long,’ Rahim agreed for once. ‘And it’s a risk to split everyone up.’
‘Rahim, you know these mountains; is there a way around?’ Shazad asked.
I found myself reaching for the sand almost without noticing it. The pain in my ribs answered, but so did the desert, shifting as I drummed my fingers against my side. I had the beginning of an idea. I just couldn’t tell whether it was the kind that would get us all killed or not.
‘The mountain is well defended,’ Rahim was saying. ‘No roads, only paths. There is one way we could try, but we’d lose at least a week and—’
‘What if we go through?’ I interrupted Rahim. ‘Not around, not over, but –’ I made a small forwards motion with my hand, like it was a knife cutting through silk, and even this far away, I felt the sand shift, like a current through water – ‘through.’ The wheels in my mind were still turning, wondering if we could really do this or if I was losing my mind.
‘No.’ Ahmed was already shaking his head. ‘You heard Shazad: a fair fight would be suicide with our numbers, and I won’t risk it.’
But Shazad knew me well enough to know that even I wasn’t reckless enough to suggest fighting our way through. She was watching me, mind turning quickly, trying to see what I was thinking. ‘You’re not talking about a fight, are you?’
‘Not a fair one, at least.’ I could feel the excitement bubbling up. ‘What if we sailed through?’ There was a moment of complete silence as everyone stared at me like I was insane. Everyone except Shazad, who understood instantly. Jin caught up with her a moment later.
‘So, just to be clear.’ Jin leaned forwards so that I was pinned under his gaze. He was speaking slowly. If I knew him any less well, I might’ve thought he was chastising me. But I did know him. He had that smile on his face. Like we were about to get ourselves in real trouble and he wouldn’t have it any other way. ‘You’re suggesting sailing a ship through the sand with your Demdji gift?’
‘You really think that will work?’ Shazad asked.
‘The sand runs deep enough,’ I said. I could feel the rush of being back in the desert. ‘I think I can try.’
‘You know a ship isn’t flat, don’t you?’ Jin said, but that spark was still there. ‘You’ll have to keep it balanced.’
‘Without the full force of your powers?’ Ahmed asked. ‘Amani, it’s a risk.’
They didn’t trust me. Not entirely. I could see the doubt hanging on every single one of their faces as they looked at me. That I wasn’t strong enough. They thought I was too confident. But if my power was draining out of me and my days were numbered, then I might as well use the dregs of it to do something big. I might as well pour it all out of me before I died.
‘Everything we do is a risk,’ I said. ‘And we’ve got a bigger fight than this one waiting for us in Izman. I don’t want to lose any more time.’
‘You’re sure you’re up to this, Bandit?’ Jin tightened his hands on the wheel.
I raised my shoulder. ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’
‘We could all die,’ Rahim answered.
‘So, what else is new?’ I asked.
I watched the circle of people around me as the idea that we might actually do this settled on us, one by one. What it might mean. That it might even be possible.
‘It’d be one hell of a battering ram,’ Shazad admitted.
‘If Amani can do this—’ Rahim started.
‘She can,’ Jin said, eyes on me. He was on my side, along with Shazad. We only needed one more person. Everyone looked at Ahmed. He was unreadable. A family trait he shared with his father. His head tilted forwards in thought for a long moment.
I was about to say something else, to keep fighting for it, keep making a case that I could do this, when he lifted his head. And the Rebel Prince had slipped away. He didn’t look like his father, I realised, he finally looked like a Sultan.
And he nodded.
<
br /> Chapter 31
The sun rose bright and brilliant to the east side of the ship, the wind coming from the north, tugging at the sails.
‘It’s good weather for sailing.’ Jin tied a rope around my waist. He was so close, the sun blazing behind him making me squint when I looked up at him.
Everyone was tied to the ship, harnessed so that if I lost control of the sand and the ship toppled over, they wouldn’t be thrown overboard. Jin fastened the rope tighter.
We waited until the first light crested over the edge of the water before Ahmed nodded to us from where he was harnessed to the mast.
Jin started calling orders, like we’d planned – instructions I didn’t understand about sails and jibs. We started to move, the sails swelling, waves lapping against the hull below us, as Jin manoeuvred us straight towards the shore.
I took a deep breath and felt the sand on the floor of the sea swell lazily in response, trying to fight the heavy water clinging to it. I shut my eyes, pressing my palm downwards, pouring my focus into it as we picked up speed on the water.
I felt the sand strain against me even as the pain in my side doubled, almost toppling me overboard as I fought to cling to my power.
‘Now!’ Jin called.
I pulled on my powers at the same moment that the sailors pulled on the knots. Sails billowed to their full swell out into the wind, and the sand rose up to meet us, lashing into the bottom of the ship.
The whole thing rocked unsteadily under us, listing to the left. A few screams rang out across the deck, and I gripped the ship, fighting to regain my balance and balance the ship at the same time, letting the sand drop out from below us for a moment. Letting the water take back over even as the desert rose ahead to meet us.
We were running the ship aground. Except I was hoping I’d be able to keep it running.
‘Amani, now.’ I heard Jin’s voice again, and I knew we were out of time. I needed to get this right or we would hit a lot worse than a bad swell in the water. I whipped my hands up and forwards, dragging every bit of sand I could find around us like the swell of a storm, just as we reached the shore.
We hit the sand with a force that sent every one of us jolting against the railings and the mast, all bracing for impact, worried that we’d topple over as we hit the sand of the desert and crash, our bodies shattering among the debris of the ship.
And then we kept going. The sand didn’t stop us. It swelled around us, like waves, carrying the ship over the shore and into the desert.
We were sailing on a sea of sand.
The shock came over me so quickly that I almost lost control of the desert. I grabbed hold of it again as I stared at the sand banking the ship on either side, swelling up around us high enough to keep the ship steady. Driving us forwards like the current with the power of the wind on our side. We were speeding ahead.
A bubble of frantic elation swelled in my chest through the pain. This was impossible. But I was doing it.
I shifted us, correcting the angle a little, as Jin called out instructions I only half heard. We were flying over the unforgiving desert. We were skimming across the Sand Sea.
And in a second, I understood what it was that Jin missed about this. The freedom of gliding through the world, forgetting for a moment where you had come from and not worrying about where you were going. Being, just for a moment, nowhere at all.
I couldn’t help it. I let out a whoop. Shazad took it up next. She was beaming into the wind with a smile like I hadn’t seen on her since we’d rescued the prisoners from Eremot. The rest of the ship quickly took up the cry, cheering as they released their white-knuckled grips on the ship. As they realised we really were doing the impossible.
The Gallan camp came into view over the rise of sand, line after line of tents appearing in our path like islands in the sea of sand. But I didn’t have any intention of stopping.
As we got closer, I could see men in foreign uniforms dashing out of their tents, running frantically out of the way at the sight of us. The sand swelled below us as we crested nearer and nearer.
‘Everyone get ready!’ Shazad called as I steered the ship towards the dead centre of the tents. ‘And raise our colours!’
I saw something bunched in one of the young rebels’ hands. It looked like a flag. She attached it to a rope on the mainsail and started pulling, raising it high above us as Shazad and Rahim both started shouting orders about drawing weapons and Jin started bellowing new orders at the ship.
But I didn’t hear much of it. Because there, unfurling high above us at the top of the mast, was a dark blue flag stitched with a golden sun. Ahmed’s symbol. A declaration of the Rebellion.
A signal to the Gallan of who was coming for them, a signal that this country wasn’t theirs to take. It was ours.
All around us, rebels were pointing guns over the edge of the ship, using the bannister as support, angling the firearms downwards. I saw cannons appear through portholes around the hull. The ship wobbled a little bit as I lost my focus. But I kept us going. Straight and steady towards the sudden chaos blooming from the Gallan camp.
‘Everybody brace!’ Jin shouted as the front of the ship hit the first of the tents.
I felt the tent splinter below the hull like firewood under my boot.
‘Fire!’ Shazad called the order as we ploughed forwards, shattering tents ahead of us. Suddenly the air was filled with gunfire and the boom of cannons. Shrapnel tore through the air, shredding everything in its path. The wind caught a tent, whipping it away from the ground and casting it high in the air. The sun struck it as it soared over us, piercing through a hundred tiny holes in the dark blue fabric, so that for a moment it looked like a hundred stars peering down on us. And then the canvas was dashed away.
To my left, a bullet struck a cache of gunpowder, sending up a blossom of flames to one side of the ship. It caught across the camp, looking like paper men going up in flames.
The sand picked up a soldier in its wake, reeling him towards us, making him disappear under the bow of the ship. And I thought of a soldier like him marching through Dustwalk when I was a little girl, boots kicking up dust as he dragged a man out of his house and shot him in the name of their occupation. And I didn’t feel sorry.
I fought through the pain in my side. Even if I loosened my grip on the desert a little, the wind would carry us until I grabbed it back. But now I forced the sand around us to swell, overcoming the Gallan like a wave. And then I looked up. Straight ahead, the sand ended, giving way to stone as the ground sloped up, as desert turned to mountains. Panic set in.
‘Jin!’ I called.
‘I see it,’ he shouted back, already motioning for the sailors to bring in the sails. Already trying to slow the ship.
‘There’s a mountain!’ I shouted.
‘I see it,’ he said again.
I had to do something. I watched everyone scramble. ‘Everyone hold on!’ I shouted. But my voice was lost in the gunfire. I caught Shazad’s eye, raising my hands just a little. She took up the cry. But she was muffled, too. I watched as she made the decision. Pulling out a knife, she sliced through the rope at her middle. I cursed her under my breath.
Untethered, Shazad made her way down the line of gunmen, repeating the order, telling people to hold tight. Forcing them to drop their guns to their sides as they laced their arms through the bannisters or around masts, anchoring themselves as she ran down the line towards us.
I waited. Shazad needed to get closer. She needed to get to safety. I waited. I waited. Until I couldn’t wait any longer.
I twisted my power, yanking the sand around in one violent twist, changing the course of the ship at a hard angle, wrenching up the desert on either side to buttress us. I reached for Shazad as the ship listed hard to the right.
She was too far away. I could already tell as the ship tipped, preparing to send anyone not firmly attached over the edge.
Jin got there first.
Letting go of the usele
ss wheel, trusting his tether, he launched himself down the incline of the ship, running down the deck as it became a steep slope. As I fought to keep the ship propped up.
He reached Shazad a second before the ship tilted too hard, grabbing her to him as the ground beneath them gave out, pulling the rope around his waist taut.
I breathed in relief as he anchored her. The two of them swung like a pendulum while the chaos turned to stillness around us as the ship settled in the sand, flat on its side. Everyone was still on board by the grace of a good rope.
I could barely breathe though the agony, but I heard Rahim call out, ‘Is everyone still alive?’
‘Yeah, call out if you’re dead,’ Sam added. And Shazad laughed. Then I was laughing, too. And I couldn’t stop.
Because it was ridiculous and impossible, what we had just done. But I had managed it. And we were all still alive.
And we were almost at the end.
Chapter 32
We struck camp halfway up the mountain, at the last village before the fortress of Iliaz. Bilal had to know we were coming, but our path hadn’t met with any resistance. The people of Iliaz knew Rahim from his days in service to Lord Bilal’s father, and as we made our way up to the fortress, they came out to stare. When we stopped for the night, the locals welcomed him like a long-lost son. The whole village came out, carrying platters of food and pitchers of the wine that had made Iliaz rich. There had been no news from the fortress in weeks, the people said. Some said Bilal was already dead.
‘He’s not dead,’ I said, glancing up at the fortress above us. I could see stone towers through the crags in the mountains, casting their shadows over the green vines that dominated the hillside. We would be there before midday tomorrow. Bilal was still alive. I had the choice to keep him that way. We wouldn’t need to turn his army against him.
I hadn’t told anyone about Zaahir’s gift. Not even Shazad. I wasn’t sure why. But I really ought to say something now, as Rahim set out the plan for tomorrow on how to approach the fortress. He was calculating how many of his soldiers he thought he could count on to lay down weapons right away when a young girl’s voice came from outside. ‘No!’ she was screaming. ‘I need to talk to him!’
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