Damn her.

‘You’re right.’ I pulled the hammer back on the gun. It made her flinch. Not as ready to die as she wanted us to think she was. ‘I can’t afford to leave you here alive.’ I holstered the pistol quickly, releasing the trigger, leaving the bullet in the chamber. I grabbed her, wrenching her to her feet. ‘Let’s go.’

Izz was changing shape again, bursting into that of the enormous Roc. Leyla kicked and screamed, but she was small and I was stronger than her. I got her on to Izz’s back before she could start to fight and claw in earnest. We were in the air and out of range of their guns before the guards could even get close enough to shoot.

Chapter 5

‘Well, that was useless.’ Hala slammed the door behind herself loudly.

I’d been half dozing in the windowsill, but Hala’s rage was enough to jolt me awake.

We’d shoved Leyla into the room I’d been sharing with Hala. In stories, princesses stolen from their father got hidden away in towers in the desert or palaces above the clouds. But all we had was a room with a half-decent lock in the Hidden House. And we barely had that. Most of the Rebellion had been captured with Ahmed, but there were still enough of us left that we didn’t all fit into the Hidden House along with the women and children who already claimed it as home. We had everyone stacked three or four to a room, sleeping on makeshift pillow beds or straight on the floor. Even more folks slept on the roof, under the fiery sky that kept it from ever being properly dark, shielding their eyes from it as best they could. Which meant our precious prisoner had more space to herself than anyone else in this house.

Hala and I had moved our meagre collection of belongings to the neighbouring bedroom, which belonged to Sara and her child. Fadi, Shira’s son, now slept in there as well since Sara had taken up care of him. It seemed natural, since she was the only one of us who actually knew what she was doing with a baby. Although I’d seen Jin soothe him once or twice when Sara was asleep. It was all a temporary solution though. He wasn’t Sara’s or Jin’s or even mine. He was an orphan now, and when this war was over I’d have to find somewhere he belonged. If we won this war. If we didn’t …

Now, in our new shared room, I was sitting on the windowsill and Jin was on the floor next to it, head tipped back against the wall below me. My hand had dropped to the crown of his head as I dozed, like I needed to make sure he was still there. Both of us were awake now, watching Hala tiredly. We were all exhausted from this morning’s invasion of the palace and the unexpected princess kidnapping.

Sara sat in the corner, one hand rocking the cradle she’d dug out for Fadi. As it swung back and forth, I could just see his dash of blue hair in between the blankets. Another Demdji. Another child who would die if this country fell to the Gallan who waited outside our gates. In the room’s only bed, Sara’s small son stirred just a little, uneasy in his sleep, his fist stuck in his mouth. It was evening, still light out, and the sunlight streaming through the lattice pattern of the window next to me drew shadowy patterns across his face. Shazad had said once that the little boy’s father was Bahi, her oldest friend, who had died at the hand of my brother, Noorsham. I hadn’t known Bahi long, but even I could see the resemblance. The unruly dark curls and the soft open expression that had made me trust Bahi when I still wasn’t even sure I could learn to trust Jin again, now worn by a little boy who would never know his father because of this war.

We kept losing people. And not just our people. People who belonged to others. People whose lives we’d had no right to lay down for them.

‘Weren’t you supposed to come back with papers?’ Hala slumped against the door heavily, her anger fading, like a puppet whose strings had just been snipped, finally releasing her from some great show. The skin below her eyes was dark from lack of sleep, and she seemed thinner than she once had. ‘Or some sort of map that says, Secret doorway through the barricade here, maybe? Instead you bring me back a princess who already led her father to us once.’ She dropped, her back sliding slowly down the door until she was sitting on the ground. ‘Next time I’d appreciate a better gift after all my efforts to get you into the palace. I’m very partial to rubies, for instance. Sapphires are also acceptable.’

‘I grabbed everything I could.’ Jin stretched out his shoulders, bumping against my leg as he did so. ‘I guess there’s a separate office for maps of secret doorways. They probably keep the sapphires in there, too.’

The documents Jin had found in the Sultan’s desk weren’t exactly full of good news. There was the intelligence that the Gallan army was coming our way. I didn’t need a piece of paper to warn me of that now that they were camped on our doorstep. But there was also intelligence saying that they were a first wave and reinforcements would come a few weeks after, which would explain why the Sultan was waiting to deploy the Abdals against the foreigners. He was holding off until he could annihilate them all at once. There were some notes on sending extra troops to the south, where things were starting to fall into ungoverned chaos, people in those territories seeming uncertain of whether they were still under the influence of the now-defunct Rebellion or whether they were still subject to the throne.

Then there was the little fact that the Sultan knew that Bilal, Emir of Iliaz, had offered to betray him for us. Which could only mean trouble for Bilal. Although our exalted ruler didn’t seem to know that Bilal was dying, or that the young emir’s price for changing sides had been marriage to one of Ahmed’s Demdji. Which wasn’t a price we were going to pay, since none of us belonged to Ahmed. So we’d planned to take control of Bilal’s army another way, by having Rahim usurp him, counting on the loyalty of the soldiers of Iliaz who he used to command. But Rahim was imprisoned along with Ahmed now. We needed them both back if we were going to take that army.