Among the thousands of flat-topped white structures stretching as far as the eye could see, bursts of color splashed across walls and temples and towers pointed with electrum. There was more color too, from flowering trees and bushes to crowds of people in vivid robes of red, blue, and green. The whole of it was like a tremendous canvas painted joyously with moving, breathing life.
This was Thonis. Capital city of Khetara.
“Wake up, Behkai,” he breathed. “We’ve arrived.”
Drinking in the miraculous scene, Karim wondered if he could finally stop running, or if he’d merely traded one kind of danger for another.
18
Rae
Rae crouched in the dark, waiting for the signal. For probably the twentieth time, she felt for her father’s dagger, making sure that it was solidly wedged into her belt. The black cloth mask—hardly more than a sack with holes for her eyes and mouth—was hot and itchy, but it did its job well. Between that and her dark tunic, she was practically invisible. A ghost in the night.
The House of the Medjay stood before her. She and ten other Horizon rebels, including Omari and Asim, were hidden in the shadows around its perimeter, where they all had a clear view of the low U-shaped building.
After the Great War, the new nomarch had built the solid, unbeautiful symbol of their control over the city on Sakesh’s northern border. On the insides of the building’s two prongs were a dozen arched portals, each hung with heavy curtains to block out the wind and blowing sand. Inside these small barracks, approximately forty soldiers slept.
Rae knew all this because the baker often delivered bread to the Medjay, and he’d made a special effort to count the men the last time he’d been there, then communicate that information to the rebels. And after several nights of surveillance, they’d also learned that only three men stood guard at the front of the building after midnight. She watched them from her hiding place, one man patrolling in front of the right prong and two others on the left. A large brazier burned next to them on each side, keeping the darkness at bay.
Most important, though, was what lay at the end of the U-shaped building, which could only be accessed through theopen courtyard, past the armed soldiers packed tightly within the barracks on each side. A large windowless chamber, containing items that were nearly impossible to come by in Sakesh.
The armory.
Asim’s plan was simple. Incapacitate the guards without waking the soldiers, infiltrate the armory, and steal as many weapons as they could carry.
“We are sending a message to the Medjay—to the nomarch—to the pharaoh himself,” Asim told them at their last meeting. “For too long we have foundered in the ruins of our once great city. For too long we have allowed ourselves to remain powerless, toothless, offering up our flesh to feed the king’s insatiable hunger. No more. We will take up arms. We will defend what is ours. Out of the darkness, the City of Ra will shine again on the horizon!”
The rebels had cheered, fists in the air, and Rae had joined them. She’d nodded at the men as they dispersed into the night, and few of them even nodded back.
Rae’s heart had swelled with pride.
I was fighting in alleys, thinking I was going to earn respect. But Buto and his stupid friends have none to give.The rebels, on the other hand, were reputable men—artisans, tradesmen, some of them ex-military. Earning their respect might actually have meaning.
If any of them were nervous about the raid, they hadn’t shown it. Once the decision had been made, there was no looking back, and no one—not even the reluctant brewer—spoke a word against it. Rae had a few reservations about the plan at first, having thought about it every day while she worked in the fields. It was a simple plan—but was ittoosimple? What if something went wrong? At the end of that last meeting, she’d finally gotten up the courage to speak to Asim.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a secret weapon,” the rebel leader had told her. He’d brought a large sack and shown her what wasinside. “Might get messy if we have to use it,” he’d added with a grim smile, “but it’ll be a night the Medjay won’t soon forget.”
Rae’s focus jerked back to the present as she heard a distinctivekroo, kroo, much like the call of a nightjar. But it was no bird—it was Asim’s signal.
Time to go.
On bare, silent feet, she and Omari sprinted out into the open, keeping low and to the shadows, as Asim and another rebel emerged on the other side. The two pairs flanked the building, Rae and Omari on the left, Asim and his partner on the right. When she reached the outer wall, Rae pressed her back against it, listening to hear if either of the guards standing on the other side had heard their approach.
“So, what do you think of the job?” a young voice asked.
“Eh,” a second, older voice grunted. “Sakesh is a dung heap. I’d rather work with dogs.”
Rae’s cheeks flushed with anger, but she was relieved. Clearly, they hadn’t heard a thing. “You should have stayed in Thonis,” the older man continued.
The younger one chuckled nervously. “I didn’t have a choice. Our superiors made it clear that the others and I were needed here.”
The second man snorted. “Sent the best of the best, did they?”
There was an awkward silence. Then: “There’ve been shifts in the assignments at the palace lately. We were the only ones left.”
“Lucky me.”
An embittered old guard and a brand-new one, Rae thought.We can work with that.
