“Thank you,” I said low, realizing how hard it was to get the words out.
“Always,” he said, watching me with those inscrutable eyes.
Noor’s voice cut through my thoughts and pulled me back to the present. “The plan is, we pick up Mazin’s sister and get out of this damned empire before Vahid finally comes for us. We have enough wealth to make a life somewhere else and get away from all these djinn-obsessed people.” She leaned back against a low date tree behind her.
I toyed with the sleeve of my kurta, turning my words over before they all spilled out of me. We couldn’t leave it like this.
“I have a different plan.”
Noor’s mouth dropped open. “Dania, we’ve been following your plans since you and I met. All it has gotten us is an army of people trying to kill us. Please, tell me you have a suggestion that isn’t walking back into the mouth of the demon. We all know you are fond of that.”
I puffed out a breath. “We need to go back to the city.”
“I knew it.” Noor covered her eyes with her hands.
I held my own hands up. “Noor, you know as well as anyone what those seeds can do. We need to get rid of them.Allof them.”
Desperation leaked into my voice. If there was one thing I could do to atone for all this mess, it was this. I wouldn’t let more lives be destroyed.
Noor sat up. “You want to go after the emperor’s djinn fields.”
Maz walked over to me, his dark gaze determined. “I agree with Dania.”
Noor made a sound that was half laugh, half cry. “Of course you do! You’re as senseless as she is! And don’t think I haven’t forgotten you both also want revenge on Vahid.”
She looked up at the sky. “He took just as much from me and I want retribution too. But heading back there is madness. Revenge didn’t give any of us what we truly wanted, so why don’t we leave it behind us?”
I shook my head. “Noor, this isn’t about revenge. It’s about making sure this power doesn’t stay in the hands of anyone who is going to use it to destroy. It’s about stopping the cycle.”
Noor looked up at Maz, her brow raised.
“It’s a little about revenge,” he admitted.
Noor folded over, burying her head in her hands. “I hate both of you.”
I hoisted myself up onto Mazin’s horse and he leapt up behind me. Noor looked up, her face wretched but with a determined set ofher chin. I knew that look, I’d seen it before after we’d broken out of prison and she agreed to come with me.
“You know it’s the right thing to do,” I called out to her.
“I know,” she said miserably. “And strangely enough, I think Souma would have agreed with you.” She rubbed her shoulder.
“Noor, you don’t have to come with us. You have Souma’s wealth. You said it yourself, you can go anywhere, be anyone.”
“And miss out on everything? I’ll come with you. But I’m not happy you are making me ride the mule.”
She stood up, and her face turned serious. She glanced at the treasure, the last remaining piece of Souma strapped to the mule she was about to get on, and I knew she was thinking about her father. “I want to destroy all the zoraat there is and take Vahid down with it.”
“Now who’s out for vengeance?”
She got on the back of the mule and brushed her hair from her face. “I take my lessons from you.”
Fifty-one
We headed back to the city under the cover of night. Patrols of guards roamed the road, stopping everyone to and from Basral, but Mazin and I knew this valley. We zigzagged through the cold desert, ducking behind snow-capped sand dunes and sneaking through the mango orchards in the lush part of the valley, avoiding the well-used road along the lake.
Noor led us to the zoraat fields, the place where she’d lived with Souma. Guards and soldiers were scattered all over the city, quelling the rebellions from every corner. The soldiers watching the emperor’s zoraat fields weren’t prepared to guard against the djinn magic coursing through me and I sliced through their protections easily.
Finally, we stood at the edge of the fields, zoraat plants stretching out for miles. We were on the north side of Basral, and by the time I’d incapacitated all the guards we knew Vahid and his army were coming for us. There was no way he would let us take away his power without a fight.
