Chapter 29 #3
bloodred leather boots, and billowy trousers the exact blue of a dusk sea. A layer of finely made chain mail went over it
all, followed by the sharpest green and black jacket I had ever seen, picked through with silver thread. I wrapped my hair
in an ebony block-print turban, then donned a domed helmet inscribed with protective verses.
For weapons, I had gone well and thoroughly overboard. If I’d bargained away part of my life to leave the peris’ island with
my new strength, then by God, such strength would be wielded. My khanjar was now tucked besides a pair of throwing knives,
and on my back I bore two good Toledo swords. Dwarfing all was a battle-axe heavy and large enough to fell a celestial grove,
yet one that now felt barely heavier than a carpenter’s mallet in my hand.
Magnun roared in approval when he caught a glimpse. “I bet the pope in Rome just shat himself.”
Indeed, the Latin leader might have if he’d gotten a look at the assembled crew, and I suspect many a caliph, sultan, and
admiral would have lost their bowels in similar fashion. Magnun had pulled his people from fights and drinking huts, from
hunts and naps, and they appeared as wild and formidable as him. A handful were women, many as broadly built as me. They bristled
with weapons and laughter, some wearing talismanic shirts and others, necklaces of shark’s teeth in emulation of their nakhudha.
Raksh was bouncing in excitement, feeding on ambitions I could scarcely imagine as he tossed a steel mace with a wickedly spiked end from hand to hand. “Oh, this is brilliant. Truly brilliant. I might genuinely be saved!”
“I hope that inspires you not to turn tail and run away again,” I warned. “Remember you stand to benefit from Falco’s downfall as much as anyone else.”
But just saying Falco’s name was enough to dim my mood. We might have assembled a fearsome offense, but I wasn’t certain any
of the new weapons at my disposal could even cut the Frank down. What if he was protected by his sorcery? I might be able
to draw Raksh’s blood, but for all I knew Falco was guarded by something stronger.
Magnun passed by, carrying an armful of lances, and an idea struck me.
“Nakhudha,” I called out. “May I request another favor?”
He gave an admiring look down my person before responding. “Speak it.”
“Do you have any talismanic weapons, anything engraved with holy verses?” I asked, thinking back to my blessed blade. I had
been divested of it along with most of my weapons when Falco took the Marawati . It might not have worked on Raksh, but it had dispatched the creature in the lagoon all those weeks ago. “Or any iron knives?”
The mouthy pirate leader went strangely still.
“An iron knife?” Magnun gave me a curious look. “Have you been talking to my crew, then?”
When I shook my head, he motioned for me to follow him into the ship’s shadowy hold. I held open the hatch to let in a few
rays of dusty sunlight, watching as Magnun shifted crates of plunder, jostling bottles of precious oils, sacks of grain, and
parcels of embroidered brocade.
“It is odd you should ask me about an iron knife, al-Sirafi,” he said over his shoulder. “Very odd indeed.” Magnun extracted
a gorgeous silver-worked box. “For I stole this just before I was kicked out of my country.”
He opened the box. Nestled inside amongst linen batting was a long flat dagger with a dark iron blade.
About the length of my forearm, the knife gleamed as though lit from within.
The handle was gold and en graved with a pattern of stylized waterlilies and rising suns, small lapis and carnelian gems set in spiraling designs.
“What sort of weapon is that?” I breathed, entranced by its glow.
“A celestial one,” Magnun replied, sounding just as awed. When I gave him a skeptical glance, he chuckled. “Well, it’s carved
from an iron meteor that fell from the stars anyway. They find blades like this on occasion in the underground tombs of the
great sun kings in my land. It was meant as a gift for the caliph but”—he tilted the box, and the dagger caught a ray of light,
its reflection dazzling—“I decided I could find a better use for it.”
“Such as giving it to a random female nakhudha?”
“ Lending it to a fascinating female nakhudha,” Magnun clarified. “I heard what you were saying to the council about the Frank having
access to magic. This seems a worthy counter-weapon.”
“Then wouldn’t you rather wield it yourself?”
“If this Frank had my crew, I would fight through fire to save them. I suspect it will be most effective in your hands.” He
held out the box. “Take it.”
The dagger seemed to sing when I touched it. The handle warmed to my hand, and green and purple crystals glimmered in the
murky iron depths like the scales of fish rising below the water’s surface. I caught my breath, but Magnun did not seem to
notice anything unusual.
Transgression , the voice of the dove peri whispered in my ear as I raised the dagger, sunlight blazing like a torch as it danced down the
sharp blade. Was that what this was? What I was?
And yet as the faces of my crew and my daughter flashed through my mind, I found I did not quite care.
I am coming for you , I promised. And I will fight through fire .