‘Are you suggesting we send Imin—’

‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘Imin might be able to take his shape, but wouldn’t be able to take Rahim’s place.’

‘Imin’s done it before,’ Ahmed said. ‘Impersonated someone for us.’

‘Not for so long. You don’t think that if Imin walked into camp with your face and started giving us orders, everyone would notice it wasn’t you quicker than anything? We need the real Rahim. No more tricks, just a good old-fashioned rescue.’

Ahmed leaned back in his chair. ‘Is that the only reason you want to save him?’

‘I don’t like leaving people behind.’ Especially not people whom I owed my life to.

‘Amani, with the whole city looking over their shoulders and Abdals patrolling the streets every night … this sounds like a suicide mission.’ Ahmed rubbed his eyes. ‘And we’re going to need the others here if we’re planning one of those.’

Chapter 44

It was dawn before we had a plan that wouldn’t end with us all dying by Abdal fire.

We started looking for the most likely place to intercept the transport taking Rahim out of the city. We needed to get to it before it left Izman. Fighting in the confined space of the city streets was to our advantage; if it got out into open ground, we didn’t stand a chance. Sam stepped through the wall as we all stood craned over a map of Izman. There was an ugly bruise on his cheek that hadn’t been there last time I saw him.

‘Where’d you get that?’ Shazad asked, distracted for a moment.

‘A friend,’ Sam said cagily before joining us around the table. He shot me a meaningful glance I couldn’t quite read. And then it was gone. ‘What are we doing?’ he asked. ‘Picking out summer homes?’

‘Picking a good place for an ambush,’ I said. The Sultan was sending Rahim’s transport across the city with human guards and Abdals alike. We weren’t worried about the mortal soldiers. Hala could take care of them. And if she couldn’t, bullets could.

The Abdals were a different story.

We needed Leyla.

She was messy with sleep when she was brought before us in chains. But her eyes were wide and awake and frightened. Even though she wasn’t so much younger than us, she looked like a child standing across from Shazad.

‘Leyla.’ My friend leaned on the desk. ‘Think very hard about the answer you are going to give me before you speak. Is there a way to stop the Abdals? Any way you can think of?’

Leyla’s eyes darted around the room nervously, between me and Imin, and the men who were her flesh and blood without being her true brothers. ‘I’m not sure—’ she whispered. ‘I don’t want anyone else to get hurt if I’m wrong.’ Her voice was thick with unshed tears. I resisted the urge to comfort her. There’d be someone to feel sorry for her if we rescued Rahim. Until then she was going to have to grow up.

‘This is your brother’s life at stake, Leyla,’ I said. ‘He would’ve done anything to save you. The least you can do is try to save him.’

She chewed nervously on her lower lip. I couldn’t tell if she was looking for an answer or if she already knew it and was deciding whether to tell us. ‘You could try destroying the word.’

‘The word?’ Ahmed asked.

‘The one that gives them life. It channels the Djinn’s fire into their spark. I put it inside their feet.’ Leyla shifted nervously. ‘It was the hardest place for anyone to do them damage,’ she said. ‘They look like people so folk will naturally aim for their heads or their hearts. Who would think to aim for a foot?’

‘That’s smart,’ Shazad admitted. ‘And very inconvenient for us.’

‘Do you think they could be fooled by an illusion?’ I asked. ‘Not like Hala climbing into their heads; like a veil.’ Like one of Delila’s illusions. But I didn’t mention her by name. It would be an argument to take Delila with us if the answer was yes and that was not an argument we’d be having in front of Leyla.

‘They might,’ she admitted. ‘Do you have someone here who can cast illusions like that?’

‘Thank you, Leyla.’ Ahmed’s voice carried dismissal. ‘You’ve been very helpful.’

Ahmed looked at me as Leyla was led back away, steeling himself.

I was ready for a fight. ‘You can’t protect her forever, Ahmed; we need Delila—’

‘I know.’ He held up a hand to stop me. ‘I know I can’t protect her forever. So I will count on you two to do it.’ Ahmed rubbed his hand tiredly across his face. ‘Get some rest before you go save my brother.’

*

Sam hung back with me as the others made their way to their beds even as the sun made its way into the sky. Jin cast a look back for me, but I waved him on.

‘I found your aunt,’ Sam said when we were out of earshot of the others. ‘She is in a very fine set of rooms above a gold merchant’s, living beyond the means of a simple medicine trader, by all accounts. It made her easy to find.’ She was living off the gold she’d traded me for. It was a sort of poetic justice that it had allowed Sam to find her.

‘Fine.’ I shook my head. It was heavy with sleep and too many plans, too many things that could go wrong in rescuing Rahim. ‘We can go in a few days and—’

‘If you do that, you’ll be finding an empty house,’ Sam said, interrupting me. ‘She’s packing up her life and leaving the city tomorrow. A lot of people are. Too much unrest in the city. And now the curfew. Cities are never a good place to be in times of war.’