Gifting Fire Page 13

  “Remember what I told you,” he whispered, and I knew in that moment that he understood. I knew what words he was referencing. Do what you have to do to survive.

  “I will, my prince,” I whispered back, my voice catching in my throat.

  Arjun stepped away from me, and Karim stepped closer, his jaw clenched tightly. He glared down at me, his dark eyes wide with fury. “I permitted that as a courtesy, but from now on, no man touches you but me. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, your highness,” I replied, keeping my voice calm and subdued, removing from it any traces of the anger and hatred I was feeling. “With your permission, I would like to explain the situation to my sisters and to Hina and her celas. They must be very nervous by now.”

  “Yes, fine.” He gestured to the baradari. “But be quick about it. I want us in Kadiro before nightfall.”

  “As you wish, your highness,” I agreed.

  I tried to project an image of calm as I made my way back to my throne, where Sakshi and Lakshmi were waiting. I knew that my older sister would be under no illusions about what was happening, but I didn’t want Lakshmi to be scared. Karim was a horrible man, he was evil, and cruel, and he had raped me when I was Lakshmi’s age. I wanted her nowhere near him. But that wasn’t a choice that I had, so the best I could do would be to shield her with my body and my mind, and hope that it was enough.

  “It’s true, then?” Sakshi asked as I stepped beneath the pavilion’s domed roof. Her collarbones were standing out from her skin as she sucked in a tense breath to steel herself for my response.

  “We will be flying to Kadiro with Karim Shah, all of us,” I said, nodding to Hina and her celas so that they would know they were included too.

  “Kadiro?” Hina asked, not missing the fact that we hadn’t planned for this. “Is your household not coming with you?”

  I shook my head. “It is not.”

  She said nothing, not here, not where others might hear, but the grim expression on her face spoke volumes. It asked me all the questions I was already struggling with—how would we get our messages out without Shiv? How would we contact Sunil Kalani to let him know where we were? How would he contact us? How would we get a letter to Haider to ensure that Safavia attacked? My plans were already falling apart, and it had only been an hour since I’d made them.

  I didn’t have answers to those questions, not yet. I knew that platitudes like “We’ll think of something” were worthless here. We might well not think of anything. It might be that Karim kept us as virtual prisoners in the palace. But I did have some good news. “There will be no wedding before the tax revenues are assessed next year. That gives us some time to make preparations.”

  Hina nodded. She saw what a relief that was. Our situation had changed drastically in the course of a single day. Months could shift the balance of power back in our favor, if we were careful, if we used our time wisely.

  “Are you really going to marry Prince Karim, Akka?” Lakshmi asked. She didn’t sound disgusted at the prospect, just confused.

  “I am,” I lied, because I didn’t want her to know about our plans; I didn’t want to risk her telling anyone. And if she believed that I would marry Karim, then maybe it would help convince him and his men that I was serious about it.

  “But don’t you love Prince Arjun?” she asked.

  “I do,” I admitted, my heart aching for him already, “but my father arranged for me to marry Karim instead.”

  “I thought you didn’t like Prince Karim,” she said.

  “It’s complicated, little sister,” I told her, reaching out and running my hand over her jet-black hair. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it, but for right now we need to fly with Karim to Kadiro.”

  “And Nuri is coming too?” Lakshmi asked, nodding to indicate Hina’s twelve-year-old cela.

  “She is,” I agreed. “All of Hina’s celas are coming with us. But we all must be unarmed. They’re not going to be soldiers and bodyguards anymore, but handmaidens and companions.”

  Lakshmi frowned. “But they’ll still get to be zahhak riders?”

  “Yes, we all get to keep our zahhaks,” I assured her, as well as Hina’s disciples.

  Hina surrendered her weapons to one of her soldiers and had her celas follow suit. All sixteen of them gave away their fish-tailed Zindhi rifles and their bhuj axes, and in a flash they were reduced from a troop of women warriors to a retinue of pretty handmaidens as you might find in any palace in Daryastan. Seeing that strengthened my resolve to beat Karim. I wasn’t going to let Karim strip us of everything that made us special and powerful. He had won this battle, but the war was far from over.

  I returned with my sisters and Hina and her celas to where my father was still standing with Arjun, though I noted that Karim and his men were gone, and Sikander too. That worried me.

  “Where are Karim and Sikander, Father?” I asked.

  “Fetching the zahhaks from the stables,” my father answered. “I’ll be sending Sikander and two fliers with you.”

  Two fliers? That didn’t make sense. I’d stolen four thunder zahhaks, including my Sultana. That meant that I needed at best one Nizami flier, not two. Was he gifting me zahhaks from his personal retinue? If he was, then that would bring my numbers up to six thunder zahhaks. With so many flying on my side, I would have Karim outnumbered on the flight back to Kadiro. Why not use that to my advantage and kill him?

  Or was my father sending extra men to keep me under closer guard, to even things out in the event I decided to attack Karim’s five acid zahhaks with my sisters? That made a certain amount of sense too, but I doubted very much if any Nizami soldier would kill me to protect a foreign prince. So why the show of force?

  Before I could finish puzzling it out, the men returned, mounted on their zahhaks. Sikander was riding Parisa, his personal mount, and two Nizami men followed him, riding zahhaks I had taken from Shikarpur, while leading Sultana and Ragini by the reins.

  “Akka, why is he riding my zahhak?” Lakshmi asked, pointing to the soldier who was mounted on the back of the animal she had chosen for herself.

  “I don’t know, but we won’t let him keep her,” I assured her.

  Karim followed close behind Sikander and his men, mounted on Amira’s back, the brilliantly colored acid zahhak strutting across the palace grounds, her bright red eyes and her hooked beak giving her a menacing aspect. He was attended by three of his men riding acid zahhaks of their own, but a fourth man was leading a fifth acid zahhak by her reins. Was this the gift Karim had promised me?

  “Mohini?” Lakshmi’s voice was filled with hope and doubt as she stared at the acid zahhak that was trotting dutifully behind the man holding her reins.

  “No, sweetheart,” I told her, patting her on the shoulder. “It couldn’t be.”

  But Lakshmi wasn’t listening to me. She shouted, “Mohini!” and tore free from me, the skirt of her sari threatening to trip her as she raced across the courtyard.

  “Lakshmi, no!” I ran after her, terrified that she was going to get herself devoured. The last thing you wanted to do around a strange zahhak was make sudden movements, and a girl as small as Lakshmi would be an easy morsel, even for an acid zahhak.

  But the acid zahhak being led by the Mahisagari soldier perked up at the sound of Lakshmi’s voice. She tore free of his grasp and galloped across the courtyard toward my little sister, springing with her wing claws, her crane-like rear legs kicking furiously at the paving stones.

  Before I could stop her, Lakshmi had run straight up to the massive zahhak, and the animal buried her beak in my sister’s chest. I ran, horror gripping my insides, waiting for the spurt of blood as the creature tore my baby sister apart in front of me, but the blood never came. The zahhak was pushing her head up against Lakshmi’s chest, sniffing at her, nuzzling her. Lakshmi was clinging to the animal’s massive skull,
running her hands over the brilliant blue feather crest atop her head, all the while crying, “Mohini!” over and over again.

  The acid zahhak saw me coming and pushed Lakshmi aside, using one wing to protect her, like she might her own hatchling, and leaned her head low, her beak widening to reveal razor-sharp teeth. She hissed at me like a snake, and I froze in place, suddenly aware of the fact that I was the one breaking all the rules by running up on a strange zahhak like a crazy person.

  For an instant, I thought I was going to be bathed in acid, but at that moment, there was a fluttering of wings, and a huge blue and gold form appeared out of nowhere, dropping from the sky to land in front of me, roaring a warning. It was Sultana. She’d pulled free of the man holding her the moment she’d seen me in danger.

  “Mohini, no!” Lakshmi exclaimed, and I was shocked when the zahhak turned her crimson eye to look at the little girl for permission.

  “You don’t eat my akka!” Lakshmi chided, her harsh words making the zahhak bow her head in submission.

  For my part, I had put my hand on Sultana’s neck to calm her, and though she kept one emerald eye on Mohini, she nuzzled my body with her snout, taking in great sniffs of me to make sure I was okay.

  “Thank you, my friend,” I told her, giving her a big kiss on her snout, and rubbing her cobalt scales with great affection.

  “Akka, come see my Mohini!” Lakshmi called, now that both of our zahhaks were under control, even if they were eyeing each other warily.

  “Be nice,” I told Sultana as I slowly approached my little sister, watching Mohini for any signs of aggression. She regarded me suspiciously, but since Lakshmi was walking toward me with no signs of fear, she kept her wing claws and her razor-sharp beak to herself.

  My sister was grinning from ear to ear, her face wet with happy tears. “Can you believe it, Akka? My Mohini came back to me!”

  “She’s my wedding gift to your big sister,” Karim declared from his place in Amira’s saddle. “I traded a zahhak egg to your father for her.”

  My hackles went up at once. Was this gift meant to be some grand gesture to me, or a way of earning Lakshmi’s undying favor? Was he grooming her, as he had groomed me? The possibility of it roiled my insides. I could never let the two of them be alone together, no matter what happened. I wasn’t going to let him do to her what he had done to me.

  “Thank you, Prince Karim!” Lakshmi exclaimed, tears continuing to stream down her cheeks as she petted Mohini, as the two of them nuzzled each other, as she clung to the zahhak’s emerald neck scales. It should have been such a joyous moment, but I felt nothing but hatred and fear at my sister’s reunion with her zahhak. If I’d entertained any doubts about the sort of monster Karim was, they were gone now.

  “You’re welcome, Princess Lakshmi,” Karim replied, bowing gracefully in the saddle, favoring her with a charming smile.

  “Your father really traded a zahhak egg to his rival, the zamorin of Kolikota?” I asked dubiously.

  Karim shrugged. “We have plenty more where that came from. The Firangis were using Ahura to build up a force of acid zahhaks, as it’s a nesting ground. When we captured the island, we captured their acid zahhaks, and a cache of eggs. Soon, Mahisagar will have a force of acid zahhaks to rival even Virajendra.”

  “That’s wonderful news,” I said, and I thought I even managed to sound sincere, though in reality my mind was churning, trying to work out just how strong Karim’s position really was. I supposed when we reached Kadiro, I would find out for myself. I bowed my head. “Thank you for this magnificent gift, your highness. It warms my heart to see my little sister so happy. I could have wished for nothing more than this.”

  “I really get to have my Mohini back?” Lakshmi asked me, her face full of tears of joy.

  “Yes, you really do,” I assured her. I came forward slowly to embrace her, and though Mohini kept a scarlet eye on me all the while, she made no aggressive movements, though she did press her snout against Lakshmi all the harder, as if trying to prove to the girl that she loved her even more than I did. Normally I would not have imagined myself a rival for a zahhak’s affections, but where my little sister was concerned, I didn’t think even a zahhak’s fabled loyalty was worth very much when set beside my own.

  “Is it safe to come closer?” Sakshi asked, standing a few paces away, looking nervous.

  “She won’t hurt you!” Lakshmi promised, and she made sure of it by being the one to go to Sakshi and embrace her, rather than the other way around. “Isn’t my Mohini the prettiest zahhak in the whole world?”

  “She is,” Sakshi agreed, though for my part I didn’t think I would ever view an acid zahhak in the same way I viewed my Sultana. I reached up and ran my fingers across the paler blue scales on the underside of Sultana’s neck, my thunder zahhak still hovering protectively over me, just in case the shorter acid zahhak got any ideas about eating me.

  Now the math made sense at least. My father had known about this gift, and had accounted for it. I would have three thunder zahhaks flown by Sikander and two of his men, plus Ragini, Mohini, and my Sultana. Six animals: five thunder, one acid. It wasn’t enough to defeat all of Mahisagar in battle, though it was more than enough to defeat Karim’s four acid zahhak riders, I thought. If I attacked en route, would Sikander’s men join me, oppose me, or sit back and watch?

  “If you’re finished getting reacquainted with Mohini, Lakshmi, dear,” Karim said, “we should mount up and get moving. You and your akka will be flying with me back to Kadiro now. Sakshi and Sikander have to stay here to finish making preparations, but they will join us in a couple of hours.”

  He was smirking at me, letting me know that he’d already considered the possibility that I might attack him on the way to Kadiro. But with Lakshmi and me flying alone, the odds were too badly stacked against us to risk a fight. And my father and Sikander would kill Sakshi if I rebelled. It was clever. The bastard had thought of everything.

  “And what about me?” Hina asked. She was already mounted on her zahhak, Sakina, along with all fifteen of her celas on theirs.

  “You and half your fliers will come with Razia and Lakshmi,” Karim told her. “The other half will follow with Sikander.”

  “As you wish, your highness,” Hina said, and she even managed to keep the hate and the rage out of her voice, though God only knew how. The tension in her shoulders betrayed her anger, though her face was a carefully composed mask of neutrality.

  “I’ll see you in a little while,” Sakshi told Lakshmi, hugging her tightly. Then she turned to me and said, “I’ll be all right here with Sikander, Razia, don’t worry about me.”

  “See you soon, then,” I replied, because when I was already leaving Arjun, and this new home in Shikarpur, I didn’t have it in me to say any more long good-byes. I swung into Sultana’s saddle instead, and steeled myself for the flight to Kadiro, wondering what horrors awaited me there.

  CHAPTER 11

  Karim and his three fellow acid zahhak riders kept about two hundred yards above us and fifty yards behind us the whole flight south to Kadiro. It was an aggressive posture, designed to give them a clear shot if I tried anything, though I didn’t see why it was necessary when I only had Lakshmi flying my wing.

  Hina’s eight river zahhaks floated in and out of the formation, but Karim’s men ignored them, as they lacked breath. If only they’d had thunder or fire, we could have flown up to meet Karim in battle, and defeated him. But I supposed if river zahhaks had breath, Zindh would be one of the great powers of the world, and not a backwater province of Nizam.

  Still, in spite of all my disadvantages in numbers and position, I was tempted to simply wheel Sultana around and send a bolt of lightning straight into Karim’s face. But I knew that biding my time was the smarter move. When I struck, I wanted it to be a completely devastating blow that destroyed Mahisagar, and secured Zindh. I wanted to giv
e myself an unassailable position that would force my father to acknowledge my supremacy over Zindh, and dissuade him from ever dreaming of marrying me off to any man against my will again. The trouble was, I didn’t have the slightest idea how I was going to do that now that Shiv was back in Shikarpur, unable to deliver messages, and Karim seemed wise to all my tricks.

  “It’ll be all right, your highness,” Hina said.

  I looked up, having been staring at the waters of the Zindhu below me, completely lost in thought, and found that I was flying alone with Hina—the rest of the formation having floated off to our right, out of earshot.

  “I know it looks grim now, but we’ll get through this together,” she said.

  I shook my head, marveling at the generosity of her words. She’d just lost everything and she could still spare a thought for my feelings? I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to be so gracious in her position.

  “Thank you for supporting me,” I said. “If you’d left . . .” I trailed off, not sure what I would have done had she withdrawn her allegiance. I couldn’t have blamed her if she had. I’d surrendered to Karim after I’d promised I wouldn’t.

  “It’s not the return to Kadiro that I’d imagined,” she confessed, looking over her shoulder at the Mahisagari acid zahhaks hovering above us and behind us, their peacock-like plumage blending in surprisingly well with the bright blue sky. “But I couldn’t just leave you, not after everything that happened. Nobody deserves to be forced into a marriage with that monster.”

  “Do you think Sunil will be able to recruit enough men to really challenge Mahisagar’s army?” I asked, because if he couldn’t, then I wouldn’t have a prayer of avoiding this marriage.

  Hina shrugged. “I think a lot will depend on Prince Arjun and the Registanis.”