It drove straight through Fereshteh’s chest.
Inside, the immortal Djinni, one of God’s First Beings, who was made at the same time as the world, who had seen the birth of humanity, who had watched the first immortals fall and seen the first stars born, who had faced the Destroyer of Worlds, died.
Chapter 37
The Djinn were made from a fire that never went out. An ever-burning smokeless fire that came from God. And in the early days of the world the First Beings lived in an endless day.
Then the Destroyer of Worlds came. And with her she brought the darkness. She brought night. And she brought fear.
And then she brought death.
Wielding iron, she killed the first immortal Djinni. And when he died, he burst into a star. One after another, the Djinn fell that way, filling our sky.
Watching Fereshteh die was like beholding a star on earth. White burned across my eyes, and I was blinded. I heard someone scream. I heard Shazad shout something I couldn’t make out.
Slowly the light retreated from under my eyelids, leaving me blinking but able to see again. Inside the machine, Fereshteh’s body was gone. What was left was burning bright as a star, and the metal of the machine around him was blazing incandescent. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up painfully. I knew where I’d felt this before. The metal door, before the Gallan tried to kill me. Even as we watched, the light whipped up a wire I hadn’t seen before, igniting, racing along the ceiling, darting above us.
There was a shout from below as the flash of light above our heads illuminated us too sharply to miss. The time for subterfuge was over. Sam grabbed us both by the hand, wrenching us up the steps and back through the door so fast I barely had time to take a breath before we plunged through.
Hala staggered back as we stumbled through.
‘Hala.’ I tore my hand out of Sam’s for a moment. He stumbled to a stop, but Shazad didn’t. She was a few paces ahead of us, already running back towards the garden. ‘Leyla – she’s down there. Get her out.’
She didn’t even argue with me. I didn’t give her time. I was running, chasing on Shazad’s heels back towards the gardens. I glanced over my shoulder before we rounded a corner, just in time to see the door in the mosaic open, unsuspecting soldiers spilling out towards a waiting Hala, who grabbed hold of their minds before they’d taken a step. And then Shazad wrenched me around the corner. Hala and Leyla were on their own.
Sam grabbed hold of me as we approached the wall, dragging me towards it.
We burst through the wall, gasping, just as the Sultan’s speech ended. Applause burst around us and for a moment I felt destabilised, plunging away from what we’d just seen, chasing the starlight, back to the normality of the palace.
And then, all around the darkened garden, lights started to come on. Not oil light. Not fire and flickering torchlight. Just light. Fire without heat. And it was coursing out from the machine that had just killed the Djinni, and then getting trapped in the crystal birds that I’d seen earlier, hanging from strings and staying there, flaring to life.
Bottled starlight.
Awed sounds filled the garden as the lights illuminated the amazed faces of the Auranzeb guests.
And then, in the corner of the garden, something moved. I snapped around in time to see one of the statues shift. One of the figures of the Sultan’s dead brothers straightened his head. And then the one next to him. And the one next to him.
The metal men straightened up and took a step. And another. The crowd started to turn around, expecting another party trick. But this wasn’t a trick.
‘What are they doing?’ I heard the fear in Shazad’s voice. It was rare to hear her afraid. But I knew she was remembering the same thing I was. A train. A boy in a metal suit. Burning hands. Bahi’s screams.
A foreign man in the crowd was forced to stagger back as a statue advanced on him.
I was sitting across from the Sultan in his study when he spoke about the servants of clay the Djinn made before humanity. The Abdals. Creatures of clay who obeyed any order. I was listening when he talked about the first time he had made a mistake thinking he could control a Demdji. That our power wasn’t worth the risk of disobedience.
It didn’t mean he’d given up on having that power.
It meant he’d given up on disobedience.
The metal things were stepping past the Mirajin, towards the foreign guests. Penning them in.
I heard the Sultan telling me Mirajin forces alone couldn’t stand against the threats on our borders.
It was a trap. Auranzeb. The ceasefire. Everything. It was a trap to lure them here.
I knew what was going to happen the second before it did. One of the Albish soldiers lunged between the metal man and his queen. The statue raised one hand.
I was watching his face when he burned. He burned like Bahi had burned in Noorsham’s hands. He burned like something lit with Djinni fire.
Chapter 38
The screams started, some of them snuffing out before they could start, as the Abdals turned their stolen Djinni magic on them. Mirajin soldiers were pouring into the gardens now, too, cutting off anyone who tried to run. The smell of blood mingled with the smell of burning.
I realised that I was waiting for an order from Shazad that hadn’t come yet. That she was frozen next to me. Pressed against the wall, watching men and women burn the same way she’d watched Bahi burn. If she wasn’t going to take charge, someone else would have to. My eyes darted around the garden for Jin. I couldn’t see him.
‘Sam,’ I ordered, ‘you need to start getting people out from our side. As many as you can, and then you get out. Shazad—’ She jolted as I grabbed her arm. I did my best imitation of her. We needed someone to be Shazad and she wasn’t herself just now. ‘I need you to pull yourself together.’ She was pale, but she nodded. ‘How do you feel about using that gunpowder to blow the gates?’
The gates were on the other side of the garden, chaos and death blooming in between us. I saw her mind working. The Abdals were attacking only the foreigners. They wouldn’t cause her any trouble, seeing as she was Mirajin. But there were too many soldiers. There was no crossing that. ‘I need a weapon,’ Shazad said, finally sounding close to normal. She was wrapping a sheema around her face, hiding her identity.
‘I might be able to help with that.’ Rahim appeared by my elbow. There was already blood on his uniform. He held out a foreign-looking sword to Shazad. ‘Are you as good as Amani says you are?’
‘No, I’m even better.’ Shazad grabbed the blade out of his hand. ‘Together?’
The Sultan had been right. They were a well-matched pair. They burst into movement as easily as if they had been trained as one person their whole lives. Soldiers’ bodies fell around them as they moved, fighting their way across the chaos. At the same time, Sam turned, plunging into the crowd, discarding his Albish uniform jacket as he went.
Tamid.
He darted across my mind all of a sudden. Hala was supposed to get him out. But the plan had changed. She was getting Leyla now. I had to get to him. I couldn’t leave him behind again.
I was running before the thought had even finished, dodging around the chaos in the garden. I plunged into the hallways, headed for Tamid’s rooms, the noise from the garden fading into the distance.
The sound of clattering feet in pursuit replaced it. I glanced over my shoulder as I ran. My escape from the gardens hadn’t gone unnoticed. A handful of soldiers were behind me. A gunshot sounded just as I flung myself around a corner. The bullet hit where my head would’ve been. Plaster sprayed like blood, peppering my skin. Orders must not be to capture me, then.
I careened around the next corner, my bare feet skidding on smooth marble.
And then, like a Djinni blossoming from the sand, Jin was there at the other end of the hallway, firing at something I couldn’t see. My heart took off and I felt myself speed up.
He turned, gun up, raised toward me as I bolted dow
n the hall. The soldiers were close behind me, but he wouldn’t have a clear shot at them, not with me in the way. I pumped my legs harder; I had to get to him before they got a shot off at me.
I could almost hear the hammers pulling back on the guards’ rifles.
I crashed into Jin full speed. His arm curled around me. He turned me sharply just as the guards lined up their shots, until there was nothing but his body between me and the bullets.
I could feel the pistol pressing into my back. I curled one hand around it and Jin’s grip yielded.
It was like being home.
I aimed in the space around Jin’s body that was still shielding me. Three quick shots. And then there weren’t any more. Not from me. Not from them.
Because I didn’t miss.
I pulled away from Jin. There were three bodies slumped on the ground, dead, and then there was nothing but Jin filling my vision.
‘You’re bleeding.’ Jin’s hands were frantically searching my body.
I was shaking hard. The sensation of being back in his hands. Of us being together again. Of pure relief.
‘Not mine.’ I shook my head. I had no idea where the blood had come from. ‘We have to move. We need to get people out—’
‘We are.’ Jin grabbed my hand. ‘They’re getting as many people out as possible. Shazad is taking care of the gates and and Imin escaped with your friend Tamid in the confusion. We need to—’ We burst around a corner. Kadir stood in our way, flanked by two of the Abdals, their twisted bronze faces staring at us blankly. Like Noorsham. But without any eyes. Without any flesh or blood inside. Or any doubt.
This was what the Sultan had wanted. Soldiers who couldn’t turn traitor. Demdji who didn’t have a conscience. Who wouldn’t fight his control.
I fired on instinct. My last bullet. It plunged straight through the clay where its heart should have been. It didn’t even stagger.
‘Well, little Demdji bitch.’ Kadir raised his gun towards us. ‘No traitor brother of mine around to save you now.’
‘Want to bet?’ Jin stepped in front of me, shielding me from Kadir, ready to fight him. But Kadir wasn’t interested in a fair fight; his finger was already pressing down on the trigger.
That was when the gates exploded.
The Sultim staggered, his shot going wide. It was enough. I grabbed Jin’s hand. We bolted for the stairs, a spiral leading up and up and up. Our feet pounded against stone as we climbed, Kadir close behind. We burst out onto a hallway. And I realised suddenly that I knew where we were.
I spun towards the room at the end of the hallway. It was Tamid’s workroom. The one where I’d been able to see the roofs of Miraji. When I’d thought about jumping. I slammed the door behind us, shoving the bolt into place a second before Kadir crashed into it, making the wood shake. In the corner of the room, one of the glass bottles fell from the shelf and shattered across the ground.
There. A coil of rope among the bottles and the bandages.
I grabbed it with one hand and ran to the balcony, Jin close on my heels. It was a narrow jump between the edge of the balcony and the wall. And from there it’d be an easy climb down.
‘I think we can make that.’ I was breathing hard. I was trying to be sure. I thought it was about the same distance as it was between Tamid’s roof and the one next to it at his house back in Dustwalk. I’d made that jump before. But that was so long ago it was hard to remember. And the drop here was a whole lot farther.
‘I wish I shared your confidence, Bandit.’ Jin’s breathing suddenly sounded shallow. I looked over and saw him clutching his side.
I grabbed his hand and pulled it away. It was a long cut. A stray bullet, maybe. ‘Damn it.’ I looked around desperately. Kadir was hammering on the door behind us.
We were trapped. No way back. Only forward. ‘If I can make it’ – I tied the rope to the banister of the balcony – ‘can you crawl?’
That smile pulled at the edge of Jin’s mouth. ‘Have I told you that you’re exceptional lately?’
‘No.’ I looped the rope around the edge of the balcony again. ‘You disappeared on me for a few months without explanation instead.’
Jin spun me around to face him. ‘You’ – he kissed me quickly, on the left corner of my mouth, sending a rush through me – ‘are’ – the right corner of my mouth this time – ‘exceptional.’
I didn’t wait for it. I pulled him to me, kissing him fiercely before pushing him away. ‘We don’t really have time for this now.’
‘I know. I’m distracting you.’ He tugged on the piece of rope and the loop I’d made came untied. ‘As exceptional as you may be, you’re also exceptionally bad at knots.’ He started doing something complicated, his fingers working deftly. And then he turned to me. In a few quick motions he’d looped the other end of the rope around my middle. ‘If you’re going to risk your life, might as well do it safely.’
‘You’re sure that will hold?’ I looked at the tangle around the railing uncertainly.
‘You can trust a sailor with knots,’ Jin said. ‘And you can trust me with you.’
He steadied me with one hand as I climbed up. No matter how far down the drop looked from the balcony, it looked a lot worse standing on the balcony’s railing. The jump might not be all that far, but it was a long way to fall and a narrow landing.
I could probably make that.
The door rattled behind us. Kadir pounding his way in.
I was half-sure I could make that.
I took a deep breath.
I was about to find out.
I jumped.
Open air yawned below me. For a second I wondered if this was how Izz and Maz felt, when they shifted into animals.
When they flew.
My bare feet hit the wall, stumbling. I grabbed on to one of the crenellations for balance. I teetered there for a second before I found my footing. I pulled the knot around my middle and wrapped it around the crenellation. The rest of the rope hung down the other side of the wall, almost to the bottom. At least close enough to get us out of the palace.
It looked solid enough and, God, it had better be.
On the other side of the balcony, Jin swung himself over the edge. He locked his hands and legs around the rope. The knot next to me tugged as Jin leaned his weight onto the rope.
It held.
And still held as Jin tugged his way across. One inch at a time, leaving a trail of blood behind.
All I could do from the wall was watch, heart in my throat, as every tug brought him closer to me. He was nearly halfway across when the lock to the door broke.
Kadir burst through in a storm of rage.
I had my gun up and pointed before he had made it to the balcony. I didn’t have any bullets. Just a bluff. ‘Touch that rope and I can make you sorry that you were ever born, Kadir.’
‘You’re lying.’ But he didn’t come any closer, rooted, chest heaving with rage.
‘I’m a Demdji.’ I pulled the hammer back on the empty gun. ‘I can’t lie.’
Neither of us moved. We were in a stand-off now. I stood on the wall, gun up, pointing it straight at Kadir as Jin dragged himself the rest of the way across the rope. One inch at a time. Slowly. Slowly. He didn’t have to be fast; he just had to be faster than Kadir’s brain worked. Faster than the Sultim would take to realise I had nothing but an empty gun.
‘Kadir.’ The voice at the door made me jump so hard that I had to steady myself on the wall.
The Sultan was alone, stepping through the door. There were no guards with him. No Abdals.
‘Father.’ Kadir held out one hand. ‘Careful, she has a gun.’
His gaze darted from me to Kadir, to the gun, back to Kadir. His mind wouldn’t work nearly so slow as his eldest son’s. I urged Jin silently to hurry. He was a handbreadth away now.
The Sultan dropped a hand on his firstborn’s shoulder. ‘Oh, my son. You are a fool.’
Then the Sultan pulled out a knife.
I start
ed to shout, started an empty threat that I couldn’t finish with no bullets left in the gun. A promise to stay in the palace if he let Jin leave. Anything that might buy Jin the last few moments he needed to get across before the Sultan cut through the rope and killed him.
He didn’t slash towards the rope. Instead the blade in his hand went straight through Kadir’s throat.
It was a clean kill, like with a hunting prize. So clean that when Kadir dropped to the ground, the annoyed protest was still written all over his face. So fast that I didn’t have time to cry out before he was on the ground.
The shock rippled through me, freezing my tongue, my whole body.
The Sultan looked up at me calmly, wiping his firstborn’s blood onto the dead prince’s shirt. And suddenly I was sitting across the table from him again. Listening to him tell me that his sons would drive this country into dust under foreign heels. That Kadir wasn’t any more fit to rule than Ahmed.
There is nothing I wouldn’t do for this country, Amani. The Sultan turned to face me. He wasn’t stupid. He was going to figure out I was out of bullets pretty fast. I had to keep him busy, just a few moments. Until Jin made it across.
‘You know, it’s been a while since I went to prayers.’ There was a weight crushing my chest as I spoke. I had hated Kadir. But, God, seeing him like that, with his eyes staring glassily up at the night sky, blood still gushing from his throat … ‘But I’m pretty sure God frowns on killing your own son.’
‘Ah, yes.’ The Sultan smiled placatingly. ‘Cursed is the one who kills his own blood. Remember what we are celebrating, Amani: my ascent to this throne. I think I am past being able to escape that curse. Besides, Kadir would not have made a good ruler. It’s my own fault, really. He was born too early in my reign. I was scarcely older than he is – was.’ He spared a glance down at the body bleeding out on the balcony. ‘I’d planned that the throne would pass him by, go straight to my grandchild, but of course, that wasn’t to be. I hadn’t counted on that power-hungry little wife of Kadir’s to be so resourceful.’ Shira. She had been dead a few days and already her name was being erased. When they told the stories of what happened in this war, was that all she would be, the power-hungry Sultima? He looked back at me. ‘And I have to admit, I had not anticipated you managing to get yourself free.’ He almost looked impressed. ‘How did you do it?’
Traitor to the Throne Page 31