“Have you no honor?” someone shouted.
Casildo looked around us, his eyes widening. He finally seemed to notice the crowd that had amassed around him. The angry, protest-driven crowd that was now pressing in on us.
Jeering and shouting filled the square.
The crowd had turned on Casildo.
“Wait,” he cried weakly at the furious mob. “Wait, I didn’t mean…”
“I thought you were a pillar of this city, sahib? Hm? Now you steal and suggest a child take your punishment?” I shouted the words across the square, inciting the throng of people, bringing the frenzy to a peak.
“You said… you said…” he sputtered, his hand going to his heart, looking less like a powerful man and more like a scared little boy.
I bent down, getting on my knees in front of him, ignoring the screams of the mob. Noor and the guards were keeping them at bay now, and only Casildo could hear my words.
“This is what you like to do to people, isn’t it?”
He looked up at me, his eyes wild, but my question cut through the fear.
“What?”
“You heard me. I’ve just done what you do. I took everything from you—your reputation, your family. That’s what you did to my father, isn’t it? You used his trust, his love for his child, and you destroyed him.”
Casildo looked me full in the face. “Your father? Sanaya, I’ve never met your father.”
“You’re too smart to be this foolish, Casildo. My father trusted you. And instead of helping him, you warned the emperor and got him killed.”
Understanding lit in his eyes.
“Dania?” he whispered, his voice barely audible. His face had blanched white as his eyes roved over me. He shook his head. “You can’t be her. You look nothing like Dania.”
I smiled at him but said nothing. A look of horror washed over his face.
“I took everything from you, just as you did from me.”
I stood and surveyed the incensed crowd, then turned back to him. “By the way, there is no exception to the law. You must serve in the work camp yourself. But now at least everyone knows what kind of person you are.”
“Casildo will be arrested, not this girl,” I called out to the crowd.
The mob cheered and Casildo collapsed on the ground, weeping into his hands. Noor gestured for the guards to take him away. I grabbed Darbaran’s arm lightly, and he gave me an oily smile. My skin crawled just being near him.
“Put him on the transport tonight. The faster you do, the richer you’ll be.”
Darbaran nodded, his eyes lighting up.
I watched as my father’s betrayer was taken into the night begging for mercy. His daughter was at the edge of the crowd in her mother’s arms, head buried in her chest. At her father’s cry, she lifted her head. For a second, our eyes met, hers a pale, blazing green and mine dark with revenge.
I wondered if she would come for me too, when she was older.
Noor stepped in place beside me. “What do you want me to do?”
I tore my eyes away from the little girl.
“Make sure she gets everything.” I jerked my head toward her and her mother. “Every ounce of Casildo’s fortune. She should want for nothing.”
Noor nodded and began walking away, but I stilled her with a hand. “Except the swords.” My voice was low. “I want them back.”
Twenty-seven
