Somehow, I’d managed to torture my best friend and still stay standing enough to wash the evidence from my skin.
“Captain?”
One of my guards stood at the door of my tent. “Enter.”
“The Viceroy would like to see you, sir.”
I nodded, knowing the time had come for my reckoning. I followed the guard out of my tent and toward Reza’s at the center of camp.
My eyes slid across to Yaseema’s tent, which wasn’t far from his. There was a light on, but I couldn’t see anything more than that. It was late for her to still be awake, but perhaps she was reading.
I imagined her, curled up on her bed, the journal she carried around in her lap as she studied it. It was almost a comforting thought, ahead of what I was about to face.
The guard stopped at the doorway to Reza’s tent, and I didn’t pause as I went directly inside.
“Yes, Viceroy?”
He was studying a giant map of the seven Courts, his finger placed on one near the edge of Salt. Then he looked up at me and smiled.
My chest coiled tightly upon seeing that smile. I had many memories of it.
“Any luck with the prisoner?”
“None yet. But I spent the day with him. I expect tomorrow he will have some answers as to where the rebels are.”
“Yes, I heard his screams across the camp. I’m disappointed you didn’t get anything though. And you know how I feel that we no longer have Queen Azari’s crown. But you’ll get it back.”
I didn’t respond, because there was nothing that could be said that would change what would happen next.
He walked over to me, his eyes gleaming and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Kneel.”
I didn’t bother to argue.
Black vines like snakes poured from underneath the tent, sliding toward me. A warped, twisted version of life magic, and I wondered who he had taken that particular power from. Bisma? The rebel he’d just cursed in the forest?
Did it matter?
They wrapped themselves around my legs, then my arms.
This time, he picked up an ornate blade from the table next to him, black as obsidian, and I recognized it as a blade from Salt.
“It seems my usual way of discipline hasn’t been working for you. And since you seem to enjoy the human girl so much, I think you need a more base reminder of your allegiance to me.”
He walked slowly toward me, the blade catching the top of my shirt, then slicing downwards. He pressed the tip into my chest, his vines holding me tight, and this time, I did scream.
Chapter 40
If the Empress comes, she’ll never find out what we’ve done.
I’ll make sure of that.
—Letter from Mahira Nazir to Zimran Nazir
Yaseema
The Viceroy’s anger permeated the camp, and the entire thing was locked down, with soldiers patrolling every hour. A hunting party had gone after the rebels, but Kiyan hadn’t been among them.
There was no way I could escape the camp now without the Viceroy catching up to me and discovering why I was trying to leave in the middle of the night. A heavy feeling of guilt seeped through me, at the thought of the Viceroy hunting down the rebels for a treasure they didn’t even have. At him blaming them for what I did, and them not even having the power to stop him.
