Anam busied herself with making tea and I shot Noor a murderous expression. She gave a shrug and slid out of the room, the shadows of the doorway swallowing her up. Either she couldn’t take much more of Anam talking about the emperor, or she was finally heading to do what she was planning to do since we got here.
I exhaled as soon as she left and turned my attention back to Anam. It was time I got a few more answers from her about who her brother really was—if she even knew.
“Your brother seemed quite upset in the bazaar yesterday.”
Anam looked down. “Yes.”
“I suppose it’s understandable, he must have been so concerned when he heard you’d gone missing.”
“That, or he’s angry he doesn’t have control of the city like he thinks,” she said, with a tilt of her head and a mild smile.
I raised a brow. “And does he? Control Basral, I mean? I know he’s in charge of the royal guard and the city patrols, but there seem to be so many problems.”
“Oh, Maz has been focused on gaining a foothold in every corner of the city. Every corner of the empire, really. He’s been working extremely hard—he’s very ambitious.”
She said it with pride, as if she admired the things he had done to get here. I wondered if she had ever thought about me, and what he had told her had happened.
I had always seen Anam as sweet, unassuming, an ally. But now I was questioning everything. She knew what Maz did to me—she must. And yet she sat here looking proud of what he did—proud that he betrayed his best friend for a little more power.
I curled my fingers around the bronze knife sitting on the table beside the small pot of honey.
Footsteps thudded in the doorway, and I looked up to see a large figure filling the entrance to the terrace. My breath caught and I released the knife in my hands with a thud.
As Maz stepped into the light, the red sun gleamed off the terrace, and his dark hair shone like liquid night. The threads of gold in his eyes glowed as they lit on Anam, before coming to rest on me. He raised his lips in greeting and I felt the smile more than I saw it. I released a slow breath that I’m sure both Anam and Mazin heard.
I wanted to throw myself off the terrace at how thoroughly my body was still in his claws. But I was supposed to act like this, like a lovesick fool who didn’t know any better. I just wasn’t supposed to be taken in by it myself.
“My apologies.” His deep voice filled the terrace, making everything seem warmer. I tugged at the collar on my kameez.
“There was a skirmish in the west of the city. And I had a lead on those thugs who abducted you, Anam.”
I sat up in my chair, my heart pounding against my chest. If Mazin looked at me now, he would see the truth written in my expression. But he was watching Anam, and it gave me a chance to mask my panic. If he had any information on the street thieves, I needed to warn them. But as I willed my heart to slow, logic entered my thoughts. They were children, yes, but I remembered how slippery they were. They could evade Mazin, at least for now.
“Yes, Sanaya had her own troubles near the palace. Basral soldiers stepped in.”
Mazin’s concerned gaze met mine. I bit the edge of my lip, looking distraught. “The protests were awful. We were thankful for the emperor’s soldiers. The crowds dispersed quickly after the fire.”
“The soldiers used zoraat?” Mazin’s voice was sharp.
“Yes, they must have. It was certainly a sight to see. We managed to get away unharmed.”
The same could not have been said for the protestors.
I bit my bottom lip in an effort to look concerned and widened my eyes at him. “I hope your own skirmish wasn’t too awful, sahib.”
“Call me Maz.” His smooth voice slid over me.
I was jolted by the way it sank, like hooks, into my skin. His eyes were the same and yet not. They were tempered by something else—a calculating expression, like a snow leopard, waiting to pounce on its prey.
“Maz,” I acknowledged. “I hope no one was hurt.”
“A mild protest we quashed immediately, nothing of concern.” He swallowed, and I watched the line of his throat. “But we didn’t use zoraat on them.” He said the words as if he knew exactly what that meant, what I had seen.
His eyes met mine, dark and probing.
“Another protest?” I asked, cocking my head. This would be welcome news to Noor. If there was this much civil unrest in Basral, we needed to exploit that to our full advantage.
Mazin cleared his throat. “The emperor recently raised taxes and there have been a few… uprisings in response. But we’ve silenced them quickly enough.”
