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“Who is it?” an equally familiar voice asked, sounding strained. “Who’s injured?”
I looked up, startled. I had been so pleased to see Adara, I hadn’t even noticed she had a companion.
Navid hung several steps back, looking both uncomfortable and concerned. I gazed back and forth between him and Adara, my mouth dropping slightly open.
“This is where you’ve been all day?” I asked him, my voice growing heated as my outrage built. “Didn’t you even want to check in with me before leaving again? What if something had happened to me on my way home from the ball?”
“Did something happen to you?” Navid asked, the concern on his face deepening. “I assumed you were in bed sleeping, and I was hardly going to barge in on you there.”
“A great many things happened,” I snapped. “And you can be grateful I did leave the ball early because one of the thieves had found our house and marked it. I had to mark all the surrounding houses to throw them off.”
“That was clever.” Adara sounded admiring. “I’m sure I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
“I hid and watched for them,” I said, in no mood to acknowledge the compliment. “And I tried to follow them back to wherever they’re staying in the city.”
“On your own?” Navid sounded horrified.
“Of course on my own!” I put my hands on my hips. “You weren’t with me, were you?” I paused before adding, “They ended up seeing me and chasing me through the city.” The sourness of my tone was partly directed at him, but partly at my own failure. “I only escaped because I hid in the mill with Kali. So I came straight here to tell Rek, but they wouldn’t let me through the gate or even pass on a message.”
“Oh no!” Adara looked stricken. “We should have thought of that and instructed that you be given entry.”
Her obvious contrition deflated my unreasonable anger, and I continued in a calmer voice.
“I went home after that, of course. I thought you might be able to get through the gates, Navid—or at least help me work out what to do—but you were gone, and no one knew where you were. Although that mystery is now solved.” The sour note crept back in as my words concluded.
“I didn’t—” Navid hesitated, glancing guiltily at Adara.
“It’s my fault,” she said hurriedly. “We got talking at the ball, and we’re both convinced Azzam is behind everything. But Rek is obsessed with following the gang, so I thought…”
“She asked me to help,” Navid said hurriedly. “Obviously I couldn’t tell anyone back home, but you’re right that I should have thought to leave you a note and a way to contact me. I didn’t even think…I’m sorry.”
I remembered my own befuddlement of the night before, and the last of my irritation dissipated. I highly doubted Navid’s visit to the palace had been motivated by a passionate belief in Azzam’s guilt, but I could hardly blame him when I had been as giddy myself with a different royal.
“You had no way of knowing what was going to happen,” I said. “It’s really myself I’m angry at. I just wish I’d handled the whole thing better.”
“If the little bit Rek told us is true, you single-handedly captured the whole gang,” Adara said. “Gift-wrapped them and delivered them to the guards! Would it have been possible to do it any better?”
“Their captain escaped,” I said. “He was eating with your parents, Navid, and he realized what had happened—or some version of it—and ran. Rowan was injured in the process. Injured because I told him to keep Esai from leaving.”
“Rowan?” Navid looked toward the door, deep lines in his brow. “And my parents?”
“Everyone else is fine,” I said wearily. “And they’re all on alert now, of course.”
I glanced up and down the corridor to check we were alone before continuing. With the gang mostly captured, much of the truth would come out, but I wasn’t sure which parts still needed to be kept secret.
“I know you couldn’t hear the whole conversation in the cave, but you’ll remember what we talked about afterward. We’re expecting the retired members of the gang to be congregating here now that their treasure will have dissolved. So even though we caught all the thieves but one, that one will likely have reinforcements soon.”
Adara grimaced. “I’d forgotten about that. But even if Esai is still out there, at least the captured thieves might reveal the name of the traitor. Then Father can relax, at least. I’m sure Captain Jerome will have had a chance to—”
“They don’t know it.” Rek appeared from a side corridor, his face and voice weary. “They’ve all been offered a reprieve from execution in exchange for cooperating with us. Enough of them took the offer, and their stories are the same, so I’m confident it’s true. Theyhavebeen working with someone from Karema recently, but only Esai ever spoke to the person, and only Esai knows their name.”
“So we have nothing. Rowan is injured, and we have nothing.” I sagged back down onto the bench.
“Today was not nothing,” Navid said. “Thirty-eight dangerous criminals are off the streets because of your work today. That has to count for something.”
“It’s disappointing,” Rek said. “But it in no way takes away from your achievement.”
The door to the doctor’s rooms swung open, and I jumped back up. As soon as I saw the smile on his face, I relaxed.
