Chapter 43
When she walks, I imagine growing wildflowers in the shell of her footsteps.
—Letter from Kiyan to his mother, unsent
Kiyan
Something was wrong.
After I’d deposited Tal in the dungeons, I’d left immediately to speak with Ramishah. She had to know about the crown already, given that she’d stolen Yaseema’s bag and it hadn’t had the crown inside it at all. But she wasn’t in her room, nor the kitchens.
The air in the palace was thick and heavy with anticipation—Salt soldiers were not patrolling the halls and there was a tenseness that hadn’t been there before.
Maybe it was that the rebels had openly attacked Reza and stolen something from him.
I knew he was planning a big retaliation and it would be difficult to get Tal out of this alive.
Perhaps I wouldn’t make it out alive either.
I went to Yaseema’s room, but the door was shut. I didn’t have her ability to unlock doors, or find the missing—both of which would have been fairly helpful—but that didn’t mean a closed door would stop me.
I tried the door first, before slamming my shoulder into it, and was surprised to find it unlocked. It swung open and I stared in shock. Her curtains were smoldering, a flame recently put out. Everything was knocked over, showing there’d been a struggle.
Things were strewn about the floor; her drawers were empty.
A soft breeze fluttered through the room beside the smoking curtains that were still managing to hang on somehow.
A metal hook was wedged under the windowsill, and I recognized it as the thing Yaseema had tried to get me to use to climb the lower mountain to the Queen’s vault.
I strode over to it, my stomach sinking as I realized what she’d done. Yaseema had climbed out of the palace and taken the crown with her.
She had gone to cross the River and head back into the human lands.
That was the only explanation. She didn’t even stay long enough to tell me why.
Does she owe you an explanation? Did you give her one?
I needed to stop her.
I bolted from the room, my boots slamming against stone as I left.
But as I entered the main courtyard Ramishah appeared, her red-rimmed eyes stopping me short.
“Mishah.”
“Kiyan, I’ve fucked up.”
“What did you do?”
“She was escaping. I couldn’t stop her.” She swallowed, and I noticed the curl of a scorpion’s tail hooking around her neck—the Viceroy’s stamp. She’d been tortured by him.
“What did you do?” I repeated, nearly yelling. Anger rose in my blood, and something white-hot, making me feel sick. Fear.
“I told the Viceroy she’d stolen the crown.”
I closed my eyes, my hands curling into fists. This was much worse than Yaseema stealing it and heading across the River.
“It was the only way I could think of—”
“Stop, Ramishah.” I shook my head. “We’ll talk about this later. Tell me where she is.” My voice was a low growl and we were both startled to hear it.
“The dungeons,” she whispered.
I turned that information over in my mind, fear filling me as I tried to remain calm. But my chest was a vacant cavity of dread. There was a dull roar in my ears, and a voice, a memory and a reminder all at once flickering back to me.
Run, Kiyan. Run.
My father when they’d caught him, and I’d escaped as a boy. And they’d killed him and laughed as they cut off his hands and slit his throat.
Run, Kiyan. Run.
It was the same voice, but this time telling me not to run away, but toward.
Dungeons. Get to the dungeons.
I left Mishah and took off at a sprint, taking the stairs to the dungeons two at a time.
New guards were stationed at the entrance.
“Let me see her.” I was surprised I could get the words out.
I curled my hands into fists to stop them from shaking.
Was she already dead?
Had Reza taken everything from me?
From her?
Could she still speak, still puzzle out a riddle, still read a scroll?
“Ah, Kiyan. The male I’ve been wanting to see.”
The guards parted, and I stepped through, uncertain of what I was walking into.
I kept my face stone, my body rigid.
If he suspected me, if he knew what I was, I needed to be ready.
Why hadn’t he told me about Yaseema? Why had he used palace soldiers?
“I’ve caught someone of interest to your guard.” He waved his hand at a slumped body in the corner of the cell next to Talal’s. I glanced at it and then to Tal, whose eyes shining in the corner of the cell told me everything I needed to know. His face was grim, his lips white.
I kept my face as still as possible. “Yaseema?”
He nodded. “She is a rebel. I would have fetched you, but it was an urgent matter, and well . . .” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“I believed the two of you had formed an attachment to each other. A shame, then, that she turned out to be a betrayer. I could have used her so much better. Don’t worry, she was leaving you as well.
Along with this.” He held up Queen Azari’s crown, the delicate gold glinting in the scant light of the dungeon.
“Finally, I have the power to make the royal family’s magic mine.
To retrieve the weapon in the Mountain. I will have more power than even that of the King of Salt. ”
Dread seeped through me, but I couldn’t focus on anything but the pile of clothes in the corner of the cell that was meant to be a girl.
“You’ve drained her then? How will you use her magic now?” My voice was tight, even to my ears.
Reza smiled slightly. “You must have had feelings for the human, I’ve never seen you so distraught, Kiyan.” He laughed and I gritted my teeth so hard I felt my jaw pop.
“That will make this next part much more fun. Don’t worry, her mind is still intact.
She’s in too much pain right now to make sense of anything but I used more visceral methods than what I’d normally do.
I’m about to wake her, if you’d like to remain.
I want her to be questioned further about the rebels that attacked us in the forest. And she will be useful to me when we head to Tirich Mir. ”
He gestured to the cell and I felt the sting of bile in the back of my throat.
She wasn’t gone, not yet. Broken bones, injuries, we could deal with. But if he had drained her, I wouldn’t know how to get her back. And if she remained here, Reza would torture her until she was mindless anyway.
I knew for a fact she didn’t know anything about the rebels.
I rubbed my hand across my mouth, aware that I hadn’t yet responded to Reza. “Yes, of course. My apologies, Viceroy—I should have been the one to stop her.”
His smile vanished. “Yes, you should. But we’ll talk about that another time.”
He turned back to the cell, motioning toward Yaseema, and dark roots hoisted her up. She jerked in pain.
He still had a warped amount of life magic left and he was using it against her. That sparked rage in my blood that nearly had me mindless. The fact that he was using my own Court’s magic to do this to her?
I was having trouble standing rooted to the spot, and not immediately trying to gut him. But my knife would never meet flesh, and then I’d never be able to save her.
“Get up,” Reza commanded at her.
I reached up to the bars, wrapping my fingers around them so tightly my hands were white.
Her scream echoed through the dungeon, and I closed my eyes.
That sound decided it for me.
I had one chance to do this, and if I tipped Reza off even slightly, I’d condemn us both.
He would torture her all night like this.
I summoned my magic, rooting it in the earth.
The dungeon was the closest place to the ground, and it meant I could conjure my strongest here.
My powers were still impacted by Reza’s poison the other night, but they were back at a level enough for this.
Because of the protection from King Rusul’s crown, I couldn’t attack him directly, but I could get her out.
I had to.
He twisted the roots around her leg and it stuck out at an odd angle. Another scream wrenched the air.
At the same time, I released my magic, whispering to every part of life I could possibly command. Deep green vines burst from the earth, wrapping themselves around the guards and Salt Soldiers and destabilizing the ground below Reza.
The entire side of the dungeon crumbled, the wall peeling away with the force of the earth, with the strength of what little power I had left. If I couldn’t attack him, I could disintegrate the earth he walked on.
The palace wall fell away, exposing us to the night, a gaping hole at the back of both Tal’s and Yaseema’s cell.
Reza shouted curses and profanities at me, but he was under rubble. It would only be a few seconds before he could get to me, and I needed to use that time to get her out.
My vines curled through the opening of her cell, growing like weeds, doing my bidding with a kind of glee.
Because I was done being his hunting dog.
I was done being used for his purpose, no matter how much I lay in wait for the right time. Every day a piece of my soul had been chipped away, and if I allowed him to do that to her, there would be nothing left of me.
My vines curled around her body like a cradle.
I could hear Reza screaming still, a dull roar in my ears. But I only concentrated on her. Talal leapt to his feet and grabbed hold of the roots and vines I had conjured as I dove toward Yaseema.
My vines slithered around us, throwing us from the palace to the ground outside.