Gifting Fire

by Alina Boyden

  My body slumped as my heart sank through my feet. There was nothing I could say. I saw that. They were going to take her, and the certainty of it was making me tremble with fear. I couldn’t think straight. I took one deep, gasping breath after another, fighting down the panic that was rising up from my chest to overwhelm me. I had to figure something out. I couldn’t let it end like this. I couldn’t let Lakshmi die because I wasn’t smart enough and brave enough to save her.

  Maybe there was a way. They’d arrive in Ahura at night. I might be able to reach it before dawn if the battle in Kadiro went fast enough. Then, I’d have a chance of saving her. She had her climbing shoes. If I climbed the fortress, I might be able to get her out. But I’d need to know which room she was in. I’d need to be able to go straight to her and get her straight out. It was the only chance. There was no other way now.

  But I couldn’t let Karim be in the room with her. God, for so many reasons I had to keep them separate now. And that meant she couldn’t go alone.

  “Sikander, you will go with Lakshmi and you will protect her with your life,” I commanded.

  “I will, your highness,” Sikander agreed, before anyone could say otherwise.

  I looked at Karim. “You will need all the zahhaks you can get, so a thunder zahhak will be helpful, and will still leave me with four here in case Kadiro needs to be defended.”

  He was quick to nod his approval. “If that makes you feel better, then of course Sikander can come along to protect her.”

  I turned to my sisters and saw the tears streaming down Sakshi’s cheeks as she clung tightly to Lakshmi. She knew as well as I did just how badly stacked the odds were against our ever recovering her. But I had a plan, and I wasn’t going to let it fail. I couldn’t let it fail. I went to them, and I took my dupatta off and I handed it to Lakshmi, pressing it into her little hands. “This is for luck, okay?”

  “I’ll be fine, Akka, I’m a good flier,” she told me, not seeing the reason for all the tears, because she didn’t know our plans, didn’t know how much danger she was in.

  “I know you are, sweetheart,” I replied, squeezing her so tightly that she let out a little cry of protest, but I kissed her on top of her head for good measure, and then I went to Sikander, fighting against every instinct I had to yank my katars from their hiding place at the small of my back and start killing Mahisagaris until I was dead or all of them were. It wouldn’t work. I needed to stick to the plan.

  I surprised Sikander by embracing him, but that was just an act to let me whisper where no one else could hear. “Tonight, hang the dupatta from her window so that it can be seen from the outside. Stay in the room with her. Do not let her leave, and above all, do not let Karim enter. Is all of that clear to you?”

  “It is, your highness,” he whispered back. Louder, he said, “You have nothing to fear. I will let no harm come to her.”

  He didn’t know how much danger he was in. Poor man. I wondered if he’d have been so quick to follow my orders if he’d known that I was essentially sending him into an enemy fortress at the outbreak of a war. Probably. The man had never lacked for courage of the military kind; I could grant him that at least.

  When I was finished speaking to Sikander, Karim approached me, taking my hands in his. I wanted to slap him, but I held back. I couldn’t risk antagonizing him now. So I bit my lip and hung my head, and waited for him to make whatever pathetic promises he was going to make.

  “We’ll be back in a matter of a couple of days, not more than a week,” Karim said. “I will make sure that Lakshmi is kept safe. You have my word on that.”

  I managed a stiff nod. “Thank you, your highness. She means the world to me. You know that.”

  “I do.” He hugged me, pulling my head against his chest like that was a comfort and not a horror. “I’m sorry that this is necessary, but I think once it’s over, we’ll be able to move forward with more trust.”

  “I think so too, your highness,” I replied, because once this was over, I was going to be moving forward in a world without him or his filthy parents in it.

  “Enough time wasted on the girl,” said Sultan Ahmed. “Let’s get moving. Safavia won’t wait for us to assemble before they attack.” He gestured for a guard to grab Lakshmi, but the man stepped right into the point of Sikander’s talwar, the sharp tip pressed up against the hollow of the man’s throat. The move had been so swift and so deft that nobody had seen it coming.

  “You will not touch her,” Sikander growled, and the fear I saw in the Mahisagari guardsman’s face gave me some small satisfaction.

  I went to Lakshmi and hugged her again, pulling her close to me in just such a way that I could feel her climbing shoes in her pockets, assuring me that they were there. “Do what Sikander tells you, okay?”

  “Okay, Akka,” she agreed.

  “I’ll see you soon.” I kissed her forehead, and breathed in the delicate aroma of coconut oil from her hair, my fury and my sorrow mingling together in a way that energized my limbs for a fight that was nowhere to be found. I settled for squeezing her tightly one last time before letting her go.

  “Look on the bright side, Akka,” she told me. “I get to ride Mohini all day!”

  “You do,” I agreed, and tears rolled down my cheeks. She had no idea how much danger she was in.

  “She’ll be safe, your highness,” Sikander said, but he didn’t know how much danger they were in either. Still, it made me feel a bit better when the big man took Lakshmi by the hand and led her toward the stables, without any Mahisagari guardsmen harassing them.

  I turned away, and found Karim standing close behind me. Bastard wanted a good-bye kiss. He reached down and took my tear-streaked cheeks in his hands, tilting my head up before planting his lips on mine. It lasted way too long. When he finally had the good grace to pull away, he wiped my tears with his thumbs and said, “I’ll be back with Lakshmi, and we’ll talk about your place here moving forward. You have my word.”

  “Be safe, your highness,” I replied, like I didn’t want him dead.

  “Always,” he said.

  I was grateful when he finally let me go and walked off with his father toward the zahhak stables, though my emotions were still in far too much turmoil to feel relief. With Lakshmi in Ahura, and Arjun attacking tonight with Sunil Kalani and Sanghar Soomro, I wasn’t sure how on earth I was going to get there in time to save her. And that was if we even succeeded in our rebellion. Even with Karim and Ahmed gone, there was every chance we would fail, especially with two acid zahhak riders ready to attack any forces we brought into the lagoon.

  “Guards!” Asma called, once Karim and Ahmed were out of sight and out of earshot.

  I looked up, horrified that I hadn’t seen this coming, but she was grinning mercilessly. Sikander was gone. My other Nizami guards were close by, but there were just two of them, and there were close to thirty Mahisagari men already ringing the baradari. Even with Hina and her fifteen celas, we were badly outnumbered, and the women weren’t armed.

  “Is taking my sister from me not enough?” I demanded.

  “For a spiteful old hag like me?” she replied, arching a black eyebrow. “Not even close.”

  I gritted my teeth, wishing I had kept a better guard over my emotions, but I hadn’t expected to lose Lakshmi like that, and my fear for her had overwhelmed everything else. I shrugged, because I knew that I had lost this round of things. The only question that remained was how badly.

  “What will you do with me?” I asked, my mouth dry as I wondered if she was planning to just kill me and get it over with, or if she was going to imprison me so thoroughly that I would have no chance of fulfilling my promises to Sanghar Soomro and his men.

  “Nothing,” she answered, still smirking. “I will keep you safe and under control until the men return from Ahura. But as I cannot trust you, I will be keeping you in your chambers
until then. The guards will ensure that you do not leave them, and my handmaidens will ensure that you want for nothing.”

  “And my sister and my handmaidens?” I asked, wondering whether she intended to keep us together or apart.

  “They will stay with you,” she declared, “lest they get any ideas into their heads about sneaking off and trying to fan the flames of rebellion while my husband and my son are away.”

  Idiot woman. Having them with me was just precisely what I needed, but I didn’t let that show on my face. I bowed my head. “Well, I’m not in any position to refuse.”

  “No,” she agreed. “You are not. You will return to your chambers now, and you will take your sister and your handmaidens with you. If you remain there like a dutiful daughter-in-law, then there need be no violence, but if you attempt to leave, for any reason, we will revisit that decision.”

  “Then I will go, and I will remain there, your majesty,” I replied, bowing to her.

  She snorted derisively. “I was warned about you, you know. Everyone said you were so dangerous and so clever. But you’re really nothing more than a pretty whore who tricked a prince into thinking too highly of her.”

  I let my spine stiffen, like her words had hurt my feelings. She didn’t know the half of how dangerous I was, but she would see. Tonight I would show them all, and I would find some way to get Lakshmi back. I swore it as I marched under heavy guard back to my chambers.

  CHAPTER 22

  No appetite, your highness?” Fatima, Asma’s chief handmaiden, taunted as I sat on the floor of my bedchamber in front of an uneaten thali. There were a dozen Mahisagari soldiers all around me, leering at me. They didn’t usually get to visit the women’s quarters of the palace, and they seemed to be enjoying having a woman to intimidate. Of course, they didn’t know that I wasn’t so easily intimidated.

  “No, as a matter of fact,” I said, glancing out my jali screen at the deep gray sky. The sun was just setting. I didn’t know how much longer I could wait before making my move. Arjun was on his way, and so was Sunil Kalani. If they attacked as soon as it was dark, then that would alert the Mahisagaris, and I’d be killed before I could get Sanghar Soomro’s men inside the palace. I had to make my move now.

  “In fact, I’m tired,” I declared, shoving the thali away like a petulant child. “I would like to sleep. Please have these men removed so that I may change into my nightclothes.”

  Fatima grinned and shook her head. “No. The men stay. Lady Asma was very clear about that. Besides, you’re a man anyway, what do you care if they see you?”

  It was a stupid thing to say when surrounded by eighteen hijras, but Fatima didn’t seem to care. She must have felt pretty invincible with all of the guards gathered around her, knowing that Asma hated me and would reward her for hating me in turn.

  I bit back any sharp replies and said, “Please send one of your girls to Lady Asma to relay my request that I be permitted privacy to undress. What harm is there in asking?”

  “No,” Fatima replied, grinning at me from behind the sheer fabric of her yellow dupatta.

  I leaned closer to her, keeping my voice low, and said, “You are serving your mistress well. That’s good, you’ll earn her favor that way. But Karim intends to make me his wife, and that is also what Lady Asma intends. So, someday I will be the sultana, and Lady Asma will be dead. You’re younger than she is; you may yet be a servant in the palace when that day comes. What do you think I will do to you then? I have a long memory, Fatima, ask anyone.”

  She frowned, seeming a lot less sure of herself then. I watched as she worked the puzzle out in her mind, folding her arms across her chest, trying to decide if honoring my request would be enough to forestall the fate I had outlined for her. In the end, she must have decided it couldn’t hurt after all, because she said, “Zahra, you’ll go and relay her highness’s request to her majesty.”

  “Yes, my lady,” a pink-clad handmaiden replied, and she rushed off to see it done.

  “Thank you, Fatima,” I said, offering her a friendly smile, though I knew there was nothing that could save her now. She had chosen the wrong mistress, and that was going to cost her far sooner than she believed.

  Fatima managed a stiff nod, but said nothing more. Evidently, she hadn’t stopped to consider what the consequences might be for taunting the princess of Nizam.

  I waited anxiously for Zahra’s return, expecting at any moment that Arjun’s forces might attack, or Sunil’s, that warning cries would spring up in the fortress and I would be held at gunpoint by the guards. I had to get out of here before that happened. I had to deal with the men in the towers and I had to get Sanghar’s men inside the palace. Everything depended on it.

  As it happened, Zahra returned quickly, but she wasn’t alone. Lady Asma herself was with her, and I hurried to stand respectfully, keeping my face covered with my dupatta and my head downcast like a properly chastened young maiden. She would know it for an affectation, but from the way she strode into the room, it was plain that she also viewed herself as a conquering heroine of sorts, so my submission was probably what she had envisioned.

  “You wanted to speak with me?” Asma asked me, no doubt so she could have the joy of refusing my request in person.

  “I would like to sleep, your majesty,” I said, keeping my voice quiet and polite and deferential—and exhausted. I wanted her to think that I’d been broken, that I was giving up, surrendering myself completely to my fate. “Would it be possible for the guards to step outside so that I might have some privacy to undress?”

  Asma pursed her lips and I was certain she was going to refuse me, which would make all this so much more difficult. But then she said, “I will permit you to undress and to go to bed in the privacy of your handmaidens and mine.”

  “Thank you, your majesty,” I gasped, shocked that it had been that easy.

  “If,” she added, smiling like she’d just caught me in a trap, “you hand over your climbing shoes.”

  For a moment, I was angry, but then I realized that this was even more perfect. She would both have her suspicions of me confirmed and have a reason to believe that I was well and truly helpless at long last. That would give me the freedom I needed to act, I thought.

  My shoulders slumped. I reached into my pockets and took out the climbing shoes, noting the way that her eyes widened behind the fabric of her dupatta, seeing the triumphant grin spread slowly across her face. I handed the shoes over. “I just want to sleep in peace, your majesty.” My voice was thick with emotion, and I let my head hang. Maybe I was overselling it, but I didn’t think so.

  Asma snatched the shoes from me. “You were planning to run, were you?”

  “No, your majesty, I just felt better with them, that’s all,” I murmured.

  “Well, you won’t be going anywhere now,” she declared. “You may change without the men present, but they will return once you are suitably attired for bed.”

  “Thank you, your majesty,” I said.

  “Hmph.” She sniffed and turned to go, but thought better of it after a moment, her eyes still flickering over the climbing shoes Karim had given me. “If you learn your place, Razia, and I mean truly learn it, then we can end these games, you and I.”

  “I’d like that, your majesty.” I gasped, pretending to choke back a sob, thankful that my dupatta and my posture were doing a good job of hiding my face from view, so that she couldn’t see the smirk I was fighting to suppress.

  “Show me that, and we can talk,” she replied.

  “I will, your majesty,” I promised.

  “Fatima,” Asma said, “you will step out and inform the guards when she is decent. I expect you to watch her closely.”

  “I will, your majesty,” Fatima assured her, bowing to her as she left the room. Asma had motioned for the male guards to follow her, so that left Fatima alone in my chambers with just
two other handmaidens, against eighteen of us. I liked those odds.

  I removed my dupatta and gave Hina a significant look. She smiled, her hazel eyes lighting up. She knew just what I was asking for without being told, and I thought most of her celas did too. Had Asma forgotten that Hina was a mercenary captain, that her disciples were all zahhak-riding warriors? Maybe it was because they were all such disarmingly pretty ladies, and because they carried no weapons, but it was going to be the old woman’s undoing.

  “Let’s help get Princess Razia ready for bed,” Hina said, but the tone of her voice held an edge to it that I noticed, and that even her less observant celas seemed to notice too. Some of them went to fetch my clothing chest, others went to get my jewelry boxes, a third group went to get water and towels to help clean the makeup off my face. I sat on my cushion, letting the women remove the bangles from my wrists, and the tall necklace and the earrings, putting each piece away carefully in a hardwood box. All the while, I was looking into the mirror, watching as the celas who had gone to fetch water and towels crept up behind Asma’s handmaidens. Their ajrak dupattas were wound into narrow ropes of silk, and they kept them stretched tightly between their hands.

  When the moment came, it all happened in a flash of movement. The three celas threw their dupattas around the handmaidens’ necks and pulled tightly, their collarbones standing out as they yanked with all their might. Other celas rushed forward, stuffing their sleeves or their skirts into the handmaidens’ gaping mouths to muffle their cries. The women struggled, clawing at anything they could, kicking out with their legs, but they died quickly and quietly, just as I’d intended. Poor Fatima. She shouldn’t have taunted me.

  I stood up and stripped off my ajrak clothes, trading them for a black shalwar kameez. I moved with purpose, selecting a pair of simple slippers to protect my feet, making sure they were flexible enough that I could bend my toes in any direction I liked. They were the opposite of the climbing shoes Karim had bought for me, but that didn’t matter so much.