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If curiosity lifted any of the people’s gazes to his, terror quickly glazed them. It awakened a surge of power in him, making the shadows in his bloodstream stir. Some part of him had missed the fear he deserved, but he hadn’t missed the reverence. He had loathed it when they dropped to their knees and lowered their heads with murmured respects.
Now he felt Aya and Lana’s silence as they witnessed the way people looked at him, the Prince of Death.
Amir al-Maut.
The name undercut the meticulous changes in himself that he had cultivated upon Sharr.
Then who am I? he’d asked on Sharr. Zafira had given him an answer then, quick and succinct. If only the truth were as easy.
A falcon drifted across the horizon, dipping behind one of the palace minarets. Nasir slowed his horse to a trot and dismounted at the palace gates, their grandeur every bit as despicable as always. If the guards were surprised to see him, they didn’t show it. They even continued with their chattering, one of them stepping forward for the horse’s reins with a boldness Nasir did not like.
He dropped his hood as he strode through the black gates, increasingly aware of his surroundings, from the beads cascading down the lip of the fountain shaped like a lounging lion to the angle of the desert breeze.
At the palace doors, the two guards lowered their heads in solemn greeting, neither emitting the fear they usually did, and Nasir slowed his steps, touching a hand to his sword before counting again the throwing knives linked to his belt.
Inside, the usually empty palace was a touch stiller. The dignitaries would not arrive for a few days still. Laa, this trap was for him, and he refused to fall within its grasp. Apprehension molded to his skin, the dark power in his blood aiding his sight in the gloom of the hall as it had done in the Lion’s palace on Sharr.
Illumining the five men in the silver of the Sultan’s Guard.
CHAPTER 26
“Don’t move,” Seif commanded from the center of the bridge as Zafira sifted through Baba’s stories for details about marids. They were amphibious and fed on blood. They had the bodies of women and tails like fish and—
“They see better beneath the surface,” Seif murmured.
From the corner of Zafira’s eye, she caught more flashes in the blue-green water as the creatures circled below them, followed by a voice distorted beneath the strait. Her horse strained against her grip, sensing danger and ignoring her soft words. It wasn’t the sun that sent a trickle of perspiration down her neck.
Then a deathly silence befell their surroundings. The waters stilled, and the horses calmed.
Zafira’s exhale shook with relief. Ahead of them, Seif relaxed. His fingers brushed the leather satchel strapped to his side, feeling for the faint pulse of the heart. Only then did fear grip her. For the heart, the most powerful artifact in Arawiya, was also its most feeble.
“Yalla,” Seif murmured without turning back, and the three of them crept forward again, dragging the horses along. Zafira winced as each clop of their hooves resonated like the snap of a bowstring.
A splash rippled the water to her left. She and Kifah shared a glance but didn’t stop moving. Seif was nearly across, and nothing else mattered.
Another splash.
The heart, the heart, the heart.
She couldn’t even swim. She couldn’t swim any more than she could survive a marid’s gnashing jaws, but all that mattered was the heart.
Zafira yelped when something slammed against the underwater supports. The bridge groaned. She gripped the moldered railing, her own heart thrumming loud enough for two.
Kifah whispered, “Our horses.”
As if spurred by her voice, one threw back its head, yanking the reins. The other stamped its feet. The air thickened with their sudden snorts and protests. The water stirred with renewed fervor. Khara. Muffled shrieks drowned out Zafira’s pounding pulse.
“Run!” Seif called over the clamor.
“Are you mad?” Kifah snapped as he took off, sheathing his scythes and pulling his horse with him. She cursed beneath her breath. “At least ride the daama thing!”
He was leaving them. Zafira had expected nothing less from a safi like him. All that matters is the heart, she reminded herself, but skies, it wouldn’t hurt to show some concern.
Seif stopped and turned, and her fear returned with a vengeance when she saw the heart against his side within reach of whatever might lunge from the waters at any given moment.
“Go!” Kifah yelled. “Now is not the time to be considerate, safi.”
His pale eyes flashed, but he turned toward the shore.
