“Yes. The crops, the livestock. Creating a blight they wouldn’t see coming.”
“They’ll think him cursed,” I murmured, working it all out in my mind. “And more will rise up against him.” I toyed with a tassel dangling from the edge of my sleeve. “But people will starve. They’ll die.”
“Not if we have our own food stores. We can purchase land bordering the city.”
“It’s a good plan.”
She grinned. “Don’t say I’m not useful just because I can’t fight.”
“I never said you weren’t useful because you can’t wield a sword, just that you weren’tasuseful,” I corrected. “And besides, the beauty of a plan like this is we can take Vahid down while not looking suspicious, until his empire is crumbling around him.”
“We can undermine his rule without even getting near him,” agreed Noor.
I licked my lips, tasting the remnants of the rose petals from the chilled tea at the palace. I wondered briefly if Mazin’s mouth would have the same lingering taste. I shook myself, not letting my thoughts fall further into the trap of him.
I didn’t want to use zoraat more than I already had, but if I could undermine the emperor’s rule using the magic, then it was worth the use.
My body reacted with dark elation at the thought of using the djinn power again.
It was like an itch at the back of my skull, a constant need that had begun to trickle out of a crack that was forming. But if I took more, it wasn’t because I wanted to, it was only to put our plans into place. Once this was all done with, I would stop taking it.
An unsettling voice whispered at the end of my thoughts, that same voice that had spoken to me when I’d first touched the zoraat.
Revenge.
The word danced on the breeze.
More.
I leaned into it with a soft sigh.
That voice had known what I wanted, and it had tasted the anticipation on my tongue. It felt wild and troubling to listen to it, but it also felt as if I were about to dive off a cliff in the darkness.
The rush of using zoraat scared me, and whatever that voice was,whatever the zoraat was doing to me every time I consumed it, I didn’t want to think about. But behind that fear was something darker, something more dangerous.
Want.
It was tugging at me like a consuming need, thrumming through my veins every time I breathed.
“Prepare the blend of zoraat to take Vahid down,” I said to Noor, and turned to face her. She had the same look I felt in my heart. Not exactly happiness, but something a little closer to satisfaction.
“Give me something that will tear this city apart.”
“What exactly am I looking at?”
“Just wait.”
“Her?”
I pointed to the beautiful woman in front of the schoolhouse, the whitewashed building standing out in the wealthy neighborhood in the north end of the city. We were far from the dirt and stink of the shanties that brewed with discontent at the rising food prices and Vahid’s control of healer magic.
Here the air smelled sweet, and the children and stray dogs were well-fed.
The woman I gestured to waited outside the school, her hair wrapped with an emerald dupatta, and she wore a simple white kurta. A loud bell rang and children began filing out of the schoolhouse, running to the nearby play park and scattering in all directions.
“Her,” breathed Noor.
I followed her gaze to a young girl, no older than six, in a neat uniform, holding her book bag in front of her like a shield.
