Chapter Twenty-Nine Amunet
TWENTY-NINE AMUNET
The torches were far—but not far enough. They must have lit them when they knew they were too close for us to flee.
A battle cry rang out among the thundering hoofbeats, dispelling any hope that they could be additional soldiers from Reeda or wayward travelers. No, they were coming here to kill us. We had fifteen minutes at best.
Nasir, Sara, and a handful of soldiers raced up to Jasim’s tent.
The prince held a scimitar in one hand and a khopesh in the other, and his gold-flecked eyes gleamed.
Whether with fear or focus, I wasn’t sure.
“Get the Gods-Chosen out of here,” Nasir ordered Jasim and Sara without preamble.
“Take the camels. There’s a small village not too far away.
Go there and wait. Do not leave until you hear from me. ”
“Look at the flags,” I said. The horde was closing in, moonlight illuminating gold and blue. Like an ocean at sunset. “Those are Haisab’s colors.” Prince Anwar. Who had sent the assassin after me.
Nasir’s eyes narrowed as he sought the masts with the flapping banners. When he spotted them, his face became ashen. “Impossible. You’ve only been with us a week. It would take Anwar longer than that to travel from Haisab to Reeda—”
“Not if Prince Anwar was already on his way here.”
He met my stare with wide eyes.
Perhaps that was why the assassin at the trading post hadn’t made another attempt on my life. The little minion had run off to tell the prince where I was. That far east of Ketopolis, it would have taken no real puzzling out to realize I was headed to Reeda.
“We’re running out of time,” Jasim said roughly.
Nasir grabbed Sara by the bicep. “I don’t care what you think of her,” he said. “You protect her with your life. Do you understand?”
Her chest rose and fell with harried breaths before she said, “I’m sorry, my prince.”
“Wh—”
He didn’t even get the whole word out before she smashed her scimitar hilt into his temple. Nasir dropped like a pile of rocks.
I stared, shocked into stillness as I struggled to process what just happened.
But Jasim wasn’t. His blade was already in his hand, and he swung it at Sara.
Before he could make contact, a soldier locked his arm around Jasim’s windpipe and jerked him back, squeezing until Jasim’s eyes bulged and his face turned red.
That shook me out of my stupor. Ten years’ worth of training with the Khada Guard rose up as I snatched a dagger from the soldier’s belt and plunged it into his side, right between the ribs, before wrenching it back out with a wet squelch and doing it again.
The man’s eyes flew wide, crimson spreading like a plague across his armor.
With a cry, I shoved him off Jasim. The man fell to the sand with a dull thud, writhing and gurgling uselessly, blood trickling from his lips.
Jasim gasped and coughed, staggering.
I rushed to him. “Jasim—”
Sara blocked my path, scimitar aimed right at my chest. I drew up short, mere inches from being impaled.
“Amunet!” Jasim roared behind her, slicing his scimitar at the soldiers surrounding him. Several fell to his blade, but there were too many, and the number was growing as soldiers boasting Haisab gold and blue joined Reeda orange.
A fist slammed into Jasim’s face, and he went down. I couldn’t see where he landed behind the mass of armor. Alarm blared through me, my ears ringing with the force of it. “Jasim!” I made a move toward him.
“Don’t even think about it.” Sara’s blade dug into the base of my throat, her hazel eyes aflame. “Move, and I’ll gut you.”
I guess you should’ve been nicer to her, mused the king.
I bared my teeth at her. “Traitor.”
She chuckled. “Can’t betray someone you were never loyal to.”
“Not me, you fucking idiot. Nasir. Your people. You were going to get your land back, a position in my court, unrestricted access to the Lotus River. And now you—”
She grabbed my collar and jerked me closer. The blade sliced against my throat, sending a ribbon of pain through me. “I’m doing this to protect my prince and my people. We won’t let Shaya be freed. And Reeda will not be a pawn in your game, Gods-Chosen.”
“Anwar won’t let you return to the Lotus River.”
“Neither will you.”
“I will. Once I’ve—”
“Save it,” she spat. “If Anwar refuses to give our land back, at least we’ll be fighting a human.”
“Jinni-descended,” I corrected.
“Weaker than you,” she fired back. “You would have turned on us as soon as you were too strong for us to resist.”
“You stupid bi—” I didn’t get to finish my uninspired insult because she rammed her hilt into my head just as she had with Nasir’s.
Everything went dark.