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While the Shaitan was bleeding and distracted, I made my move. The heel of my foot laid waste to her consciousness. Her head smacked against the marble. Out cold, she’d no longer been aproblem.
Hah! I’d just beaten a djinn without any magic. This gave me confidence I could take on the vizier. But I may have to weaken himfirst.
Dahvi cheered me on from inside hisprison.
Zand flashed me a proud smile and pointed to the columnagain.
What was up withthat?
A wave of the vizier’s hand made the dark fire grow. Darkness replaced the white in his eyes. His skin took on a gray pallor as if the dark magic absorbed his life force. But I knew that was a fool’s hope. The evil power was only fueling him with shadow, rage, andvengeance.
A blast of his gloomy magic struck me, lowering me to my knees. The evil power sank its claws into me. My life force bled from me as it had the last time, feeding the dark magic. Energy stripped out of my muscles. My heartbeat slowed. Breaths were stolen from my lungs, and I gasped, clawing at mythroat.
Eyes closed, the vizier seemed drunk on the power flowing intohim.
My gaze swung around the room. There was no Karim to save me now. The guards had seen to that by setting my houseablaze.
Ali crawled closer me to from myright.
Kaza groaned to myleft.
The genies were trapped in front of me. Both of them trained their finger at thecolumn.
Against the blood draining away and the energy being zapped from it, my mind scrambled to make sense of the genies’ meaning. What did they want me todo?
Then I saw them. The trails of black dots on the floor, leading to theirjails.
Something Zand had said before we entered the tunnels clicked in my mind. On his scout of the palace, he’d seen traps buried beneath the floor. But how did they work? What did the column have to do withit?
By this point, Ali had reached me. “No, Azar,no.”
When he touched me, the darkness crawled along his skin, and he sucked in a breath. I was powerless to push himaway.
“Break the traps,” he whispered in myear.
With what? I glanced again at the column, and the answer finally hit me.Gods.I was so stupid. Make the post fall. How the heck was I going to achieve that? I couldn’t just punch the thing and make it topple. But if I could hit it hard enough, then it mightfall.
I glanced atZand.
His eyes begged for me to stayalive.
The fog in my mind cleared a little. Finally, I understood his message. Get the vizier to strike the column with his magic. Maybe, in the process, I’d weaken him, too, like he’d done to Zand. Then, once my genies were free of their traps, they could burn him to acrisp.
When I glanced up, I caught sight of Ali hobbling straight for thevizier.
Shish kebab.What was he doing? I couldn’t find my voice. It was jammed way down in my throat thanks to the dark magic bleedingme.
I wished Ali could kick the evil vizier in the balls, but that wasn’t happening with my brother’s chained feet. Instead, Ali lifted his hands and clunked the end of his wrist chains on the vizier’s forehead. Just like Karim had done. Ali would have made the monkey soproud!
The blow shook the vizier from hisstupor.
All claim on my life from the dark flame faltered. Energy seeped back into me. My chest pumped air through my body. Blood crashed through myveins.
The vizier batted away my brother with a powerfulblast.
“No!” Power returned to my limbs in a torrent of fury. I stumbled to my feet. Woozy and unsteady, I stompedforward.
In my mind, I apologized for not going straight to Ali, but any deviation from the plan might end usall.
