Gifting Fire Read online

  Nuri nodded, as did the older celas arrayed around her. I took Lakshmi with me to my throne, collecting her thunder zahhak’s reins along the way. Sakshi and Ragini joined us, for which I was wholly grateful. I wished more than anything that Sultana was beside me, rather than in the stables, but two obedient thunder zahhaks and hundreds of loyal soldiers would be protection enough against my father and Karim and whatever they were planning.

  As I sat on the throne, Bikampuri musketeers took up their positions all along the walls, led by Arvind. Arjun was striding across the courtyard to join me, followed closely by Hina and half a hundred Zindhi soldiers, to say nothing of her celas. The young women were keenly aware of the precariousness of the situation, and they gathered around her, all armed with the long-barreled rifles with fish-shaped stocks that were so popular here in Zindh.

  The Zindhi contingent took up their positions all around the diwan-i-khas, their weapons at the ready. They used the banyan trees and the marble columns for cover, their faces grim beneath their steel helmets. They expected to be attacked. For a moment, I regretted my decision to bring them here, as so many armed men full of fear increased the odds of something going wrong. But I wasn’t going to let my father dictate his terms to me as he had before. I may not have had as many soldiers within the palace walls as Sikander did, but I had enough to make a fight of it.

  Prince Karim, the heir to the throne of Mahisagar, strode through the gates of my courtyard with all the swagger of a conquering hero, though to my eyes he looked more like a plundering pirate in his silk dhoti, with his curved firangi sword swinging from his hip. It was the little details that marked him out as a prince—his perfectly coiffed black hair that glistened in the sunlight, his carefully trimmed beard, the fat jewels on the rings that graced his fingers. And his attitude, which could only have belonged to a prince as well. Though he was in a foreign city, about to meet a ruler who had every cause to murder him, he was smirking, not an ounce of fear evident in the haughty gaze of his dark eyes.

  I wondered how much of his confidence was owed to my father’s presence here, and how much to misplaced arrogance. Though, watching his entrance, I noted that he was followed closely by four Mahisagari men wearing flying goggles on their heads, and not one of them was Ahmed Shah. I recognized Jamshid, the man who usually flew on Karim’s wing, but the other three were completely new to me, which was strange, as I’d met all of Mahisagar’s zahhak riders not two weeks before. Where had they suddenly come by three more trained fliers? Could it be that Mahisagar had more zahhaks than I’d realized?

  The thought chilled me. If Karim had more than five zahhaks to draw upon, then his father might well be ensconced in Kadiro with God only knew how many animals. Had they made an alliance with Virajendra against us? That might explain why my father was here, why he hadn’t killed Karim. But I couldn’t quite work out why Virajendra would favor Mahisagar with an alliance when they had long been rivals. Something wasn’t adding up.

  But whatever the case, if Ahmed Shah was still in Kadiro with his army, then that complicated matters. Killing Karim here wouldn’t end the war, though it might serve to weaken the Mahisagari position. But while Karim was many things, stupid wasn’t one of them. He wouldn’t have come here like this if he’d thought I would kill him. He must have had some trick up his sleeve to preserve his life.

  Sikander and my father came into the courtyard behind Karim, along with eight thunder zahhaks ridden by my father’s men, and nearly two hundred Nizami guardsmen. Sikander must have realized that I would bring my loyal men to this meeting, and now he had evened the odds—maybe more than evened them, with the presence of those thunder zahhaks.

  “What is this, your highness?” Hina demanded from her place beside me on the dais.

  “I don’t know,” I told her, so earnestly that she couldn’t help but believe me. “But we’ll sort it out with words if we can. Fighting is a last resort—they have us outnumbered. So keep the weapons down for now.”

  “For now,” Hina ground out through clenched teeth, but her fist was bunched tightly around the long hilt of her bhuj ax, and I knew that she was aching to drive the blade through Karim’s skull for what he’d done to her brother. I couldn’t blame her. Every time I saw Karim, I wanted to stick something sharp right between his eyes too.

  Karim reached the baradari and showed not the least hesitation in entering it, still smirking insufferably, still standing straight and tall, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his firangi, all in spite of the presence of Hina’s enraged celas, and the murderous looks of the Zindhi soldiers who flanked the building. He began a grandiose bow, but paused halfway through it as his eyes landed on Hina.

  “So this is where you ran off to?” He grinned. “I should have considered that.”

  “You should have considered many things before you attacked my province and killed one of my allies,” I replied, not wanting to let Hina and Karim get into a shouting match.

  He shrugged, the smile remaining on his face. “You have to admit the timing was perfect.”

  “It was,” I agreed, before Hina could blow her top. “But now you’ve made the fatal misstep of appearing here, and unless my father gives me a very good reason to the contrary, I’m going to have you executed for your unprovoked attack on my subah, and for the cold-blooded murder of Ali Talpur, one of my subjects.”

  Karim didn’t look the least bit frightened. He said, “Where I come from, it’s frowned upon for a girl to execute her own fiancé.”

  “My what?” The words tumbled from my mouth unbidden, as I struggled to comprehend what I’d heard. My fiancé? Karim Shah? The thought of it made my skin crawl and my stomach knot. It was the most preposterous, idiotic . . . brilliant thing I’d ever heard in my life. Of course. That was why my father hadn’t killed him. Karim had offered him a marriage alliance, and in return, Mahisagar would keep Zindh safe and a part of the empire. It would be a dowry of sorts. And my father wouldn’t have been able to resist such an offer, not when it neatly settled all of his problems. Zindh would be protected, a man with military experience and a reputation as a prince’s prince would be left in charge, trade with Mahisagar would be enhanced, the port would be secure, and with Mahisagar’s soldiers to draw upon, the revolts could be put down in short order.

  And if my father had agreed to it, then he would do everything he could to enforce it. That was the reason for the thunder zahhaks still swirling overhead, for the eight of them standing in a line across from my throne, for the hundreds of soldiers pouring into the courtyard at Sikander’s command.

  “This is a sick joke,” Arjun growled.

  “Oh, it’s no joke, Arjun,” Karim replied, his smirk widening.

  “Your highness, give the word, and we’ll shoot him dead,” Hina told me, her hazel eyes narrowed as she glared daggers at Karim.

  “As will my men,” Arjun agreed.

  “You will do no such thing.” That was my father speaking. He was backed by hundreds of bodyguards, all armed with toradars, all wearing armor and carrying swords, with Sikander himself leading them, to say nothing of the zahhaks. One look at Sikander’s face told me that if he had to, he would give the order to kill me to protect my father.

  “Give me one good reason why they shouldn’t, Father,” I demanded. “If your plan is truly to marry me off to Karim Shah, then why should I not tell my men to open fire and let fate decide which of us lives and which of us dies?”

  “You would do that with your precious baby sister caught in the cross fire?” Karim taunted, clucking his tongue with disapproval. “What happened to those maternal instincts of yours, Razia?”

  He was right, God damn him. Sakshi and Lakshmi were seated right beside my throne. If I fired on my father’s men, they would fire on me, and while I was prepared to die rather than marry Karim, I wasn’t prepared to let Lakshmi die in my place.

  My father didn’t unde
rstand me, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one, and he smirked at my hesitation. “Enough bluster, Razia. Have your men stand down.”

  “I can’t do that, Father,” I said, because I wasn’t yet ready to cede the field to him. Marrying Karim filled me with such dread that I wouldn’t surrender to it unless it was my absolute last resort. Right now, with friendly soldiers all around me, we hadn’t reached that point.

  “Stand them down if you want your sisters to live,” he repeated, his voice taking on a sterner edge.

  “They don’t obey her, they obey me,” Hina growled, “and I’m not about to order them to stand down, not when I have the bastard who murdered my brother in my sights.”

  “Who is this girl?” my father asked, his emerald eyes searching her face, but betraying no signs of recognition.

  “Hina Talpur, daughter of Rustam Talpur,” Sikander answered. “She’s a hijra and she serves her highness as an adviser and general.”

  “That’s why we couldn’t find the second son . . .” my father murmured, stroking his mustache as he stared at Hina, scrutinizing every inch of her, no doubt looking for some sign of her past written into her body. I’d been on the receiving end of that same gaze often enough to recognize it.

  “Hina is under my protection,” I said. “She is not to be harmed.”

  “She’s a rebel and a traitor and you should have put her to death the moment you discovered her identity,” my father replied.

  “Oh? And that’s why Karim Shah is still alive after he invaded our province, is it, Father?” I countered.

  My father shrugged, because he couldn’t deny that he was being hypocritical, but then he’d always had a soft spot for ruthless, coldhearted men who took advantage of others when they were weak. I supposed it was the only kind of person he really understood.

  “I was going to kill Karim for what he did in Kadiro, but he made me a better offer.”

  “And what offer was that?” I asked, though I thought I already knew. I was just praying that I was wrong.

  “Your hand in marriage,” Karim said, his eyes roving up and down my body with a lingering lasciviousness that turned my stomach.

  Even after all that he had done to support Bikampur in our fight against Javed Khorasani, the truth was that I could scarcely stand to be in the same palace as Karim Shah. Just the sight of him was almost enough to make me vomit up everything I’d eaten that day, to say nothing of the queasiness I felt at this ridiculous notion of a marriage. I tried to suppress a shudder, but didn’t quite manage it, and I was sure my disgust was plain on my face as I said, “I’m never going to marry you, and imagining sharing your bed is making me sick to my stomach.”

  Karim clucked his tongue. “Oh, come now, Razia, you don’t need to imagine it, you just need to remember it.”

  I set my jaw against the torrent of emotions that flooded my body at the explicit reference to my rape. If I’d thought for an instant he would obey, I’d have ordered Sikander to murder Karim right then and there, but I knew he would refuse, and then I would look weak. Hina would shoot, but with toradars already aimed in every conceivable direction, the slightest movement would set off a fusillade that would kill us all. No, I had to keep myself under control, for Lakshmi’s sake if not for my own. She was still seated beside the throne, with no way to escape the cross fire.

  “Let me make this plain, Karim—I will never marry you. It’s a stupid idea, and I can’t believe you were foolish enough to bring it to me like this.”

  “It doesn’t look stupid from where I’m standing,” my father said. “If you ask me, it solves all of my troubles. Mahisagar’s army is strong enough to control Zindh and to discourage an invasion. A marriage alliance between my own daughter and Sultan Ahmed’s heir will unify our two kingdoms, growing Nizam’s strength. And your offspring with Karim will command the most powerful empire in the world.”

  “Offspring with Karim?” I raised an eyebrow at that, wondering just how ignorant my father was in matters pertaining to hijras. “Father, you must know I’m not capable of bearing children.”

  “No,” Karim agreed, “but your cousins are. I’ve heard they’re pretty enough, and they’ll serve the purpose.”

  I frowned, confused now. “You’re going to be marrying one of my cousins, then?” That made more sense, but it didn’t explain all this nonsense about his being my fiancé.

  “No, I’m going to sire an heir off one of them, and then we’ll adopt the child as our own,” Karim said. “It’s not perfect, I don’t think any of your cousins is as clever as you are, but maybe there’s enough of you in their blood to make it worthwhile.”

  “Uncle Shahrukh would never permit that . . .” I murmured. The idea of treating a princess of Nizam like a broodmare was horrifying, even to me. Not even my cousin Sidra deserved that.

  “He’ll permit it, so long as his grandson is the heir to the throne of Nizam,” my father replied. “And if he insists on a marriage, then so be it. There is no law limiting a man to a single wife.”

  I saw the genius of it then, though I wished I hadn’t. “It would solve all the squabbling and infighting between the two of you . . .” I whispered, realizing that if I were raising Uncle Shahrukh’s grandson, he’d be far less inclined to try to take my father’s throne by force, though all bets were off where his sons, Tariq and Rashid, were concerned.

  “Just so,” my father agreed, looking proud of himself. “It solves everything neatly and cleanly.”

  “Except for one thing,” I said.

  “And what’s that?” he asked.

  “I’m not marrying Karim!” I fairly shrieked it at him, heedless of the muskets still raised all around us. “He raped me! Have you forgotten that?”

  My father shrugged. “All the more reason for him to make an honest woman out of you, then.”

  I made a sort of strangled choking sound, I was so furious with him for saying something like that. I was half-tempted to order Hina’s soldiers to kill him, and they looked like they were on the verge of doing it anyway, but if I did that, then my father’s men would have no choice but to fire, and we’d all die—Lakshmi included. She was still sitting beside my throne, taking this all in with wide, horrified eyes.

  There would be shooting. I saw that now. If my father insisted on forcing me into a marriage with Karim, I would let Hina’s men kill him instead. And if I did that, then we would all perish. I needed a way to remove our negotiations from the courtyard, where all the men could hear. I thought I could make my father see reason if I could only get him alone.

  “Enough of this,” I said, gesturing to the armed soldiers on both sides. “If you want to discuss this plan with me, Father, then let us discuss it in private, rather than holding toradars on one another like petty bandits.”

  “Just the two of us?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the notion.

  No, that wouldn’t work. Leaving Karim and Hina together was a recipe for disaster. But if I brought Karim, then between him and my father, there was a chance they might simply take me hostage, and then I would have to surrender. Arjun was the obvious choice to bring with me. As good as Karim was in a duel, I thought Arjun was better, and having an important Registani prince at my side would remind my father that I possessed powerful allies still.

  “You, me, Karim, and Arjun,” I said. “The four of us will retire to my chambers to discuss this.”

  “If you agree to marry him, I’ll kill you,” Hina warned me.

  “If I agree to marry him, I’ll let you,” I replied, drawing a trace of a smile from her lips, if only for a single instant.

  My father considered that for a moment, and he must have decided that Arjun and I didn’t pose enough of a threat to his life to worry himself over, and he probably realized how foolish it would have been to leave Karim and Hina together. So, he nodded and gestured toward my chambers. “Lead the way,
daughter.”

  Now he called me his daughter? I scowled, but I stood up from the throne all the same. To my sisters, I said, “Sakshi, take Lakshmi out of here, please.”

  “You will not,” my father said, wagging a finger at her. “Sikander, if those two try to leave, they are to be shot.”

  Sikander’s nod was instantaneous. “Yes, your majesty.”

  He would do it. I knew it with the same sick certainty that had informed all of my encounters with him in the palace of Nizam. My fists clenched, but they would do me no good here; only my mind could get me out of this. I couldn’t let anger rule me, but it was hard not to be furious when my father was using my sisters as hostages. For Lakshmi’s sake, I kept my voice calm. “Sakshi, keep Lakshmi close. I’ll be back soon.”

  “We’ll be right here waiting,” Sakshi assured me, hugging Lakshmi so that I would know my little sister was safe.

  I gave a gruff nod and stalked off to my chambers, Arjun right beside me, my father and Karim trailing close behind.

  CHAPTER 8

  Years ago, I’d have been fuming over Karim’s proposal, so angry at his betrayal that it would have been hard for me to focus on anything else, but living as a courtesan in Bikampur had changed me. I was still furious, of course; my training hadn’t robbed me of my emotions, but it had allowed me to act in spite of them, to set them aside, and to act with cold calculation. So, rather than fuming, I was scheming. There had to be some way to change my father’s mind, and I fully intended to find it.

  “If you think that speaking to me privately is going to change my mind, you’re very much mistaken,” my father warned me from his place on the cushion opposite my own.

  “I wanted to speak without risk of getting all of us killed, Father,” I replied, keeping my tone neutral for the time being. “Surely you can agree that it’s better to avoid a bloodbath if we can.”

  “So long as you do your duty as a princess of Nizam and marry the man I have chosen for you,” my father allowed.