Page 3 of Storm of Ink and Blood

Finally, they turned a corner towards the four-story haveli that had been their home for the past three months. They’d rented the top floor, and this was where their fellow resistance members would convene once it was safe.

Checking one last time to ensure no one had followed, Zarya and Yasen entered the building made of the same creamy white marble as most of Ishaan’s homes and bounded up the spiral stairs. When they reached the top landing, they heard the low drone of their guests waiting inside.

Zarya opened the door and smiled at the sight of dozens of Aazheri and vanshaj filling their flat. It was generously sized, with an ample living space in the center, perfect for entertaining. To the right was a kitchen with white wooden cabinets and a small glass table where Zarya and Yasen ate their meals. On the opposite side were a series of doors leading to three separate bedrooms, and directly ahead was a wall of windows that opened onto a white stone balcony.

Some of their friends converged in the kitchen, bottles of beer and glasses of wine in their hands. Others lounged in the large sunken living room, propped up against thick cushions scattered on a bank of low divans and across the floor.

This was the vanshaj rebellion, known as the Rising Phoenix.

Ajay Chandra looked over with a wide grin as they entered. Short black hair framed a face made for royalty. Refined and elegant with a straight nose and high cheekbones, he looked fit for the cover of one of her romance novels. Dark brown eyes flecked with silver and filled with emotion regarded Zarya with admiration. Next to him stood his twin sister Rania, her same regal features sparkling with excitement.

They made up the second tier of the rebellion’s leadership and were both powerful Aazheri who had been working for years to bring about freedom for the vanshaj with little success.

Until tonight.

Ajay raced over to where Zarya stood, wrapping his arms around her, lifting her into a warm hug, and then placing her back on her feet before clapping Yasen on the back.

“We did it!” Ajay said. Rania hugged Zarya tightly as they all congratulated one another.

“Did you see it?” Zarya asked, accepting a glass of sparkling wine from a passerby. It was spectacular.”

Ajay and Rania had also been amongst the dozen rebels inside the warehouse, setting the bombs and then waiting for the signal.

“A group of city watch nearly caught us,” Ajay said, raising a glass. “But they are no longer our problem.”

“Why are you covered in ink?” Rania asked, scrutinizing the knees of Zarya’s pants and noting the discoloration staining her fingers.

“We ran into a little trouble,” Yasen explained while the twins’ eyebrows climbed up their foreheads.

“Everything was under control,” Zarya said with a wave of her inky hand.

That wasn’t entirely true, but they’d gotten lucky. She reached into her pocket. “But I only managed to swipe two bottles of ink.”

Rania looked at them and then at Zarya, her eyebrows knitting. Neither sibling understood what Zarya planned to do, but they hadn’t asked too many questions so far. Ever since she’d met Meera, the vanshaj soldier in Dharati, Zarya had wondered if her magic was connected to their tattoos or possibly the ink it was created with.

But the substance was highly regulated and controlled thanks to the Jadugara, and sabotaging the factory had been the perfect opportunity to get her hands on a few bottles.

She knew it was only a matter of time before Ajay and Rania began questioning her further, and she was worried about how they would react once they learned the truth.

“Really, we were fine,” Zarya said to Ajay again. “It was a close call, but we knew this was dangerous.”

“Don’t worry,” Yasen said, wrapping an arm around Zarya’s shoulders. “I took care of those guards.”

“I mean, he did,” she said. “Even if he’s not all that humble about it.”

“Always here to save your ass, Zee.”

She rolled her eyes as Ajay nodded and then turned to face the room, again raising his glass high as silence fell over the crowd.

“A toast,” Ajay said, his voice proud and strong. “After years of disappointment, the Rising Phoenix has dealt a fatal blow to the kingdoms and queendoms of Rahajhan and their inhumane practice of enslaving the vanshaj. Without the continent’s main source of ink, they will be prevented from branding babies barely out of their mothers’ wombs for a very long time!”

A round of cheers and clinking glasses circled through the room as Zarya watched Rania embrace her girlfriend, Farida, whose ring of tattooed stars stood out in contrast to her brown skin.

The two had met four years earlier in a tavern where Farida had worked as a server. The women had struck up a conversation, and Rania claimed she’d fallen in love that very night. After months of visiting the tavern to be in her company, Rania offered to purchase Farida’s servitude from the tavern owner for more than twice the going rate.

The twins’ high-brow looks came by them honestly as the offspring of one of the wealthiest noble families in Gi’ana. The tavern owner couldn’t say no, and Rania had effectively freed Farida from the insult of her servitude, but the collar of stars around her neck acted as an ever-constant reminder.

With Farida at the helm, the trio had begun to stir up a quiet resistance, eventually forming a council comprised of several vanshaj members. Significant decisions and necessary consultation went through them via Farida. The council preferred to remain anonymous for their safety, with their identities only known to Farida.