I snorted. I hadn’t even thought about Darbaran during this conversation. “He’ll be so far into this he won’t know what hit him until he’s in prison.”
“A fitting place for him,” she answered.
“Perhaps they’ll even put him in my old cell.”
Noor smirked. “We can only hope.” She walked to the window and set her hands against the sill. “I’ll set the plans with Darbaran in motion. In the meantime, we have other things to worry about. More than Mazin. More than Darbaran.” She looked over her shoulder at me. “There is someone who is a little too comfortable in all this.”
I tilted my head. “Vahid.”
I hadn’t forgotten that Noor was here for revenge too.
“He won’t be.” I shook my head. “We’re going to set his empire on fire.”
Noor nodded tightly. “I’ve prepared the zoraat blend. The emperor won’t even be able to use his own zoraat supplies to combat this blight. We can be ready as soon as we like.”
It was an abrupt change of subject, but we both needed it. It was late, the early light of dawn creeping over the house and filtering slowly through the windows. “And the land we purchased?”
“It’s ready too.”
“I don’t want the people in this city to suffer if they don’t have to. I want them to see that the blight is only related to Vahid. All our crops will be more than enough to feed the city. But we’ll hold off for now.”
“What will you do in the meantime?”
I inhaled, lining all the pieces of my plan up in my head. “I have an appointment with some thieves.”
Thirty-two
“How many can you get?” I cracked my knuckles, finding familiar comfort in pressing my hands together. Because now I was standing in tepid wastewater, rats scurrying past my feet, with a face that wasn’t mine asking a child if he could wrangle other pickpockets to do my bidding.
“As many as you need, sahiba.” Yashem picked at his teeth as if he was barely paying attention to what I was saying, but I knew he was taking in every single word. His green eyes were pale in the darkness, and his face surprisingly clean considering the last few times I’d seen him he’d had dirt-streaked cheeks and artfully placed bruises to look more pathetic. Now he looked like a tidy young boy, not the usual bedraggled street urchin.
I scanned the alley, checking to make sure he was alone. If Mazin heard what I’d said to Darbaran in the garden he might be monitoring my movements even now—but this was a message that needed to come from me.
“I have thieves in all four quadrants and eyes and ears from every single tribal state. There isn’t much we can’t provide, information, persuasion,anything.”
He said that last part with a gleam in his eye, as if he knew I hadcome to him with something outside of the norm. But he didn’t know how far I was prepared to go.
“And the hawk?” I said, letting Mazin’s nickname roll off my tongue. “Do you still fear him?”
He inclined his head, considering. “I’d be a fool not to, sahiba. He pays just as well as he punishes, so there are always those willing to work for him. But you have something he does not.”
“More money?”
The boy’s grin was a flash in the dark. “If it were about money, sahiba, you would have been caught long ago. The hawk is willing to pay significantly for information about who snatched his sister.”
I snorted. “If you turned me in, you’d have to turn yourself in.” But something in his words caught my curiosity. “What else do I have?”
“You aren’t working with the emperor. Vahid has starved this city with his greed, and there are many who want to see his rule fall.”
“Well, I can help with that,” I drawled, my voice steady, despite the blackness opening up in my gut. With Casildo it had been a little too easy—like a trial run for the rest of them. But now, I was starting down the path of destroying an empire. And if it didn’t work, I could take all these people down with me—Noor, the pickpockets, the citizens of a city willing to revolt against an emperor for freedom, not knowing they’d be doing it to service my revenge.
“I need the whole city.” My words fell in the stillness of the alley, taking up the rest of the space between us.
Yashem’s eyes widened. I felt oddly satisfied at his surprise, to see someone as jaded as the young thief taken aback.
“I’ve got your attention.” I leaned against the wall behind me, taking in the hint of fear in his eyes.
“Can you do it?” My tone indicated I didn’t believe he could, but it was his arrogance that made him take the job in the first place. I needed him on board for the next steps too.
