Chapter 39
It’s odd that the thing I miss the most is the flowers you grew.
—Letter from Kiyan to his family, unsent
Kiyan
I knew he would punish me, I just didn’t know how badly. I’d never openly defied him before like that, and though I would usually not hesitate to argue my position, I never attempted to stop him outright. My resistance had normally been one of subterfuge, an insidious chipping away at his power.
But when he raised his hands to curse Talal, I had to intervene.
“Got yourself quite the problem, brother.”
“Shut up and let me think.” I had my hand over my eyes, thinking of how I could free him and Yaseema both.
“I like the girl. She’s grown on me since Tashuna.”
“Tal, I swear, if you don’t stop jabbering—”
“Aren’t you supposed to be getting me to talk? So far, you’ve just muttered incoherently and rubbed your eyes. Some torturer you are.”
“You weren’t supposed to get caught.”
“Reza wasn’t supposed to be there. We took care of the soldiers, like you said. And you shouldn’t have stuck your neck out for me. You wouldn’t have in the past.”
I stared at him. “You’re a fool, you know that? Are you actually chastising me for saving your life?”
“Why did you save me this time? What changed?” he continued, ignoring me. “I bet it’s the girl.”
I gaped at him. “Yaseema has nothing to do with this.”
“Yaseema? That’s pretty. I didn’t get her name before.”
I glowered at him, and he gave me a sunny smile. “Should I pretend to scream?”
“Do you know what’s going on here? I need to torture you now to make any of this believable. Reza would normally have all the bones in your body broken before he cursed you. Especially now the rebels have taken the crown—despite the risks. Despite the deaths.”
“You know why we did it,” he said quietly. “Anything to stop him from having it. And now, if we have the crown, maybe we can finally fight back. The Court of River will rally around the true leader of River.” He gave me a pointed look. “They’ll rally around a new King.”
I sank to the floor, my back against the tent pole. “The peris of River only know me as the one who hunts them. Who takes their family members from them. Who kills and tortures. They’ll never accept me as leader, no matter my lineage.”
“We’ll explain to them why you did it. We’ll show them all the ways you’ve helped us. Loosen my bonds, and we’ll escape together.” He nodded to the opening of the tent.
I closed my eyes, wanting to do what he suggested, wanting to no longer work for a megalomaniac who tortured and killed indiscriminately. But if I left now, what would become of Yaseema? The Viceroy would hollow her out, use her until she was a husk too.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d stood up to him, when she thought he’d curse me.
And, though the rebels had the crown, we still didn’t have a way to properly fight Reza. Any advantage we had gained by my being here would be lost if I left now.
“I can’t,” I said finally, regret poisoning my tone.
“Why?”
I stayed silent, looking at the wall of the tent, grinding my teeth together.
“I knew it. It’s her, isn’t it?”
I chewed the inside of my lip, searching for an answer that described what I was feeling.
“Yes. And no. Leaving now wouldn’t serve any purpose, not when we still can’t attack Reza outright and all of our magic is limited.
Me being here means I can stay close to him.
It means that when we find a way to destroy him, we can do so without as much loss of life. ”
Tal laughed. “Even at the expense of your own soul?”
I tilted my head and looked at him. “I don’t have much of one left.”
There was silence.
Then he cleared his throat. “She’s human.” Talal looked genuinely surprised. “I mean she has magic somehow, but there’s no mistaking her scent.”
Parchment, ink, mangoes.
“Yes, I did notice that,” I snapped at him, massaging my temples. “It’s fairly obvious, Tal. Thanks for pointing that out.”
“You think that’s a good idea?”
I huffed a laugh. “Probably not. But bad ideas have certainly never stopped you.”
“True. There was a particular soldier I would fight in the ring just so afterward we could—”
“Not the time, Tal.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Are you ever serious? You nearly died. Worse than that. He nearly cursed you. He cursed Bisma, you know. The rebellion will have to find her before Reza does so his soldiers don’t execute her.”
Tal finally went quiet at that. “There’s enough seriousness in our world right now, Kiy.”
I blew out a breath and tipped my head back against the tent wall. “So the rebels have the crown. And Reza will tear down this Court to find it now. He won’t rest.”
“That’s better than wiping us all out.”
“Trust me, if you think he isn’t going to do that under the pretense of finding the crown, or the pretense of punishing for attack, you haven’t been paying attention. He will burn towns to the ground. He will execute people in the street. He won’t stop.”
“And we are supposed to lie down and let him do that?”
“No. That’s the one thing I will never do.
But we have to combat him in a way we can win.
Getting our power back is the best plan to not only strike Reza, but the entire Court of Salt.
If you think more won’t come when he’s gone, you’re a fool.
” I bit off the last words, my resentment and anger that had been boiling inside me since I was left alone to deal with the massacre of my Court threatening to overflow.
“I can’t leave her here. And escaping won’t help us with anything. We’d still need to destroy the King’s crown.”
Talal whistled low. “Never known you to get this worked up over a girl before, Kiy.”
“It’s not just about that.” I met his gaze. “And it’s been a long time since our days on the streets.”
“Not that long, brother.” He gave me a sad smile. For a moment I remembered us, sleeping in doorways back-to-back to protect ourselves from Salt soldier patrols. Fighting in the pits alongside each other for scraps.
I had a brother, one that was trapped in a cursed Mountain, and yet Tal felt just as much like kin as any blood brother.
While I’d waited for my family’s return, I’d grown up in dirt and blood and rubble and those who had done that with me deserved a chance to fight for our Court without waiting for the royal family to return.
Because they might never come back.
Perhaps it was time to give up on the hope that I could break the curse and focus on the peris here now that needed me.
“Reza is starting to lose patience. I won’t be able to stay here for much longer. But until then I want to do as much as I can to make it so when we do act against him, it is successful.” I looked at Tal then. “Because we won’t get another chance.”
“We can still use the Queen’s crown to break the curse, you know. You can still free your family.”
“You know freeing them isn’t enough. Then they’ll all just be in the same hell I am.”
“Isn’t hell better shared?” he said with a wry grin.
“I forgot how much of an arsewipe you are.”
His mouth quirked up, a smile I hadn’t realized how much I missed. “Thank you, in case I don’t get to say it. For now, I am grateful you stopped Reza from destroying me completely.”
I stared ahead, exhaling heavily, not trusting myself to speak. The moment I’d seen Reza touch him, I hadn’t thought. But that scared me more than anything.
What would I do if he raised a hand to Yaseema?
“When do I get to see the girl again?” Tal cut through my thoughts, and I flicked my gaze back to him.
“You don’t. You’ll be transported to the dungeons as soon as we arrive at the palace. I’ll find a way to free you there.” I pinched the bridge of my nose again, thinking through the early stages of a plan that could get Tal free while I still worked in Reza’s employ. It wouldn’t be easy.
“Can you use her to destroy him?”
I looked up at his inky-black eyes, staring at me steadily across the tent.
“The girl?”
“No, a bog hag. Yes, the girl. Can you use her to find a way for us to kill Reza? You’re right that if we want to completely take power back from Salt, we need to destroy Rusul’s crown. And perhaps she could be used to break the Mountain curse.”
I rubbed my hand at the back of my neck, thinking through everything.
“Yes, I can use her.” I hated saying the words even as they left my mouth.
Tal still watched me with his usual intensity. “But you don’t want to.”
“It would just be the same as what Reza is doing. She isn’t a tool to be used.”
She’s a jasmine flower in a wasteland of rot.
“Sooner or later, we need to stoop to his level.”
I gave a hoarse laugh that had no mirth in it. “I am reminded of that every day. But I’d still like to give her a choice. It’s something I never had.”
I pulled myself up to my feet, feeling sick at what I now needed to do if I wanted to get Tal out of here alive.
But my hands had so much blood on them, another layer of red shouldn’t matter.
I pulled a knife from the sheath at my hip and walked up to Tal.
“What I’m about to do to you won’t even be near what he would, but it has to be believable now. Scream as loud as you want.”
* * *
I washed my hands at the small washbowl in my tent. They shook so hard it made it difficult to get all the blood off.
Somehow, I’d managed to torture my best friend and still stay standing enough to wash the evidence from my skin.
“Captain?”
One of my guards stood at the door of my tent. “Enter.”
“The Viceroy would like to see you, sir.”
I nodded, knowing the time had come for my reckoning. I followed the guard out of my tent and toward Reza’s at the center of camp.
My eyes slid across to Yaseema’s tent, which wasn’t far from his. There was a light on, but I couldn’t see anything more than that. It was late for her to still be awake, but perhaps she was reading.
I imagined her, curled up on her bed, the journal she carried around in her lap as she studied it. It was almost a comforting thought, ahead of what I was about to face.
The guard stopped at the doorway to Reza’s tent, and I didn’t pause as I went directly inside.
“Yes, Viceroy?”
He was studying a giant map of the seven Courts, his finger placed on one near the edge of Salt. Then he looked up at me and smiled.
My chest coiled tightly upon seeing that smile. I had many memories of it.
“Any luck with the prisoner?”
“None yet. But I spent the day with him. I expect tomorrow he will have some answers as to where the rebels are.”
“Yes, I heard his screams across the camp. I’m disappointed you didn’t get anything though. And you know how I feel that we no longer have Queen Azari’s crown. But you’ll get it back.”
I didn’t respond, because there was nothing that could be said that would change what would happen next.
He walked over to me, his eyes gleaming and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Kneel.”
I didn’t bother to argue.
Black vines like snakes poured from underneath the tent, sliding toward me. A warped, twisted version of life magic, and I wondered who he had taken that particular power from. Bisma? The rebel he’d just cursed in the forest?
Did it matter?
They wrapped themselves around my legs, then my arms.
This time, he picked up an ornate blade from the table next to him, black as obsidian, and I recognized it as a blade from Salt.
“It seems my usual way of discipline hasn’t been working for you. And since you seem to enjoy the human girl so much, I think you need a more base reminder of your allegiance to me.”
He walked slowly toward me, the blade catching the top of my shirt, then slicing downwards. He pressed the tip into my chest, his vines holding me tight, and this time, I did scream.