Chapter 34
The queen stood among the trees as though she’d been there all night.
In one hand, she held the spindle and in the other, the tethers to a half-dozen wild-eyed goats.
I had no idea how long she’d been watching us; it was as though she’d snapped her fingers and manifested, not a single sight or sound betraying her presence.
I wasn’t the only one surprised. Dalila scrambled back as Lab dropped the tethers and stalked closer.
There was a hint of indecision on my friend’s face—perhaps a moment in which she contemplated the possibility of another lie—but then it was gone, replaced by a grim expression that made my heart sink.
Even the Mistress of Poisons realized our game had come to an end.
Lab tilted her head. “You’ve removed your belt, beloved. Are you not afraid the poison will take you again?” She asked the question with obvious mockery, but there was a hard edge of resentment that made Dalila flinch.
But I was done exchanging words with this woman. Khayzur’s feather finally returned to my hand, I dragged it through one of the many still bleeding gashes not-Raksh had carved into my skin. Crimson promptly stained the green quill, turning it a murky black.
And nothing happened.
No, I silently begged. Please, God . . . I had done this only once before, to call Khayzur for the Mortar of Mithridates, but the effect had been instantaneous, even if the peri didn’t immediately appear. The feather had shivered, the magic pulsing in my heart like a tether pulled taut.
Now the feather lay as dead and flat as one discarded from a seagull.
“You look disappointed, al-Sirafi,” Lab said coldly. “Was that supposed to have done something?”
Khayzur is not coming for you. No one is coming for you. So, I would have to save myself. Snatching the throwing knives I had stolen from Dalila’s room, I flung them at Lab’s head.
They flew true and fast and had Lab been a mortal, they likely would have made a pincushion of her pretty face before she even realized what had happened.
But she was not, and she merely raised a hand, the knives freezing in the air as though they had hit a wall.
The blades dropped to the ground, and my eyes went wide. I wasn’t expecting that.
But I’d also thrown them as a distraction and I was already charging her, my far more powerful meteor blade raised.
Her magic slammed into me, snaring my limbs and slowing my assault—but not stopping me, not this time.
Maybe I was stronger than I had been after the griffin fight, maybe I was just more desperate.
It felt like pushing through a churning sea, through a sandstorm, but I did move, the iron control with which she’d dragged me across the throne room suddenly not so effective.
My fingers brushed her garments, a hint of surprise lit her face . . .
And then Lab retreated, raising her hands.
The roots of the nearest tree burst from the ground in response, putting themselves between us in a spray of soil.
I jerked back, but it was too late. A thick root coiled around my waist and then hurled me at the cottage.
I crashed through the ancient wattle wall, pain lancing across my chest.
Dalila shouted my name, but I couldn’t respond, the air knocked from my lungs.
“Impressive, Captain,” the queen said softly.
“Truly. I do not know what is between you and your demon, but I clearly wasn’t the only one intrigued.
” She bent, picking up Khayzur’s bloodied feather.
“A feather. That is curious. I had believed you here at the behest of the marid, but it seems it is the air elementals who sent you. What are they calling themselves in this millennia?”
“Amina!” Dalila succeeded in reaching my side only for Lab to snap her fingers and send another root rushing at my friend. It twined her body like a snake, tightening around her throat. Dalila gasped for air, clawing at her neck.
“Find your tongue, Captain, or she will swallow hers!” Lab warned. “Who sent you?”
“The peris!” I choked, struggling to sit upright. “They call themselves peris! Now please—please let her go!”
Lab uncurled her palm, and the root relented enough for Dalila to take a shuddering breath.
“Was that so hard?” the queen asked, a disappointed schoolmistress forced to paddle a recalcitrant pupil. Her eyes narrowed. “Why? Why did they send you?”
I didn’t reach for a lie, not now. We were caught and if giving this creature a shred of honesty kept us alive for a few more moments, so be it. “They wanted me to retrieve the spindle. But only that! They were not interested in you.”
An incredulous smile lit Lab’s face. “They only wanted the spindle. Not me? That is what they told you?”
“Yes,” I said urgently. “We never meant you or your people any harm.”
“Oh, al-Sirafi . . .” Lab shook her head with a sort of murderous amusement. “They lied.”
Any lingering hopes to which I might have clung regarding Khayzur crashed to the ground.
Dalila tried to interject. “Resplendency—”
Lab whirled on her and a smaller root snaked across Dalila’s mouth.
“You don’t speak. I am not nearly the lovesick fool you believe, Doctor, but I’ll confess you’re a better liar than most and it has left me quite disappointed.
” She turned back to me. “Were your peris and the marid not content to massacre my last city? They had to tear this one down as well?”
Massacre her last city? The charge spun in my head, turning everything I believed about the magical elementals upside down. They were supposedly barred from directly intervening—killing or helping humanity. Surely there must be more to what Lab was accusing.
“I was only sent to retrieve the spindle,” I said again.
Praying that more details might be convincing, I added, “The man who escaped Khatti Ugal was rescued by my husband. They spent the following months spinning tales about fabulous treasure in every port they could. It made the peris nervous. They feared a wave of new humans seeking out your island and one managing to discover and spirit away the spindle.” I pressed on, fervent.
“You must know this is true. You interrogated Raksh, did you not? Ask him again.”
“Regrettably, what’s left of your husband in my dungeon has not been chatty of late,” Lab replied. “Though as to the rest . . . part of me does believe you. Rather, I believe you don’t know. Not a very good assassin to be so ill-informed.”
Assassin. The charge left me breathless. “I’m not. I swear!”
“Ah, that’s right, you’re a reformed pirate,” she snarled.
“I suppose you believe leaving your bloodier days in the past means you’ve washed those stains out.
I assure you—it does not.” She stepped closer.
“I meant what I said about sea raiders. There is nothing I loathe more and if there is a silver lining to being trapped in this place, it’s that the sea brings me plenty of pirates.
Plenty of bandits and criminals and fugitives fleeing justice and, oh . . . do they meet it here.”
Frantic, I reached for our old agreement. “I can still help you escape.”
Lab laughed. “Escape? Do you still believe I desire that? I truly thought you cleverer. On this, your companion seemed to read my heart better.”
Taken aback, I glanced between Lab and Dalila.
All but gagged by an animated tree, my friend looked miserable, crushed in a manner that reminded me of the despair that claimed her just before she confessed that Sheikh Sasan had poisoned me; Dalila waiting for me to make a connection that she, always two steps ahead, knew would be devastating.
From Lab, there was no such misery. The queen was as stunning as usual, but an ancient coldness filled her eyes, a look I’d occasionally seen on Raksh, and it frightened me to the bone.
Dalila and I had thought ourselves experienced tricksters.
But Lab had seen through us from the beginning.
She’d opened herself up to Dalila, she’d put a familiar body in my bed.
She’d been quietly waiting for a slip, for the reason that had brought us here.
And why not? She was immortal; she had all the time in the world.
It was only a host that she needed, and she’d made her choice—Dalila.
Me? I was a curiosity, just as my false husband had claimed.
“You were never going to leave Khatti Ugal,” I realized slowly. No wonder the real Raksh was still rotting in her dungeons; Lab hadn’t cared about our deal, not truly.
An almost pitying smile broke across her mouth.
“This is my home. Why would I risk my life leaving a place filled with such peace, with the souls of those I love most? No, Captain. Were I perhaps younger, if I was alone, I might be tempted to take your offer. I still intend to send some sailors out on your ship, just to see what happens. But as for myself?” Her voice grew pointed.
“I am not one to leave my child behind.”
She’d meant to hurt me—and she had, the words a harsh slap. One that drew a perhaps unwise retort from me. “It isn’t peace you offer your people. It’s hell. They are so desperate to be free of this place, they’re trying to kill themselves in your halls.”
“They were fine until you arrived, whispering your stories and poisoning my craft,” Lab snapped. “Which brings me to my next point . . . What have you done to my home?” Fury roiled in her visage like a typhoon, and staring at her, a bitter hardness settled in my gut.