“So people listen to her? Is that what you’re saying?”
“People believe she speaks directly to God.”
“I don’t get it. Nobody’s recognized her?”
“She is a virgin, and daughter to a living saint. She only ever went out veiled. No one knew who she was.”
“But you did.”
“I… it was in our best interests to find a powerful religious or political figure we could align ourselves with.”
“And she was young. Impressionable.”
Inaya pursed her mouth.
“Oh, I get it,” Nyx said. “And now you owe me a favor, right?”
“Nyx, this is not the time—”
“I can see that,” Nyx said. “In a hurry, right?”
Inaya closed her eyes. God had a very grim sense of humor. “What do you want?”
“I need to get into Jolique’s house. He’s cousin to the Queen of Nasheen I hear.”
“He is also a madman. He sends priests around to women’s houses after they’ve given birth and buys their… unusual babies, when he’s not just buying and trading shifters like dogs. Why would you need to see him?”
“I have a bounty for a man, and I think his captors took him there.”
“Why would they go there?”
Rhys interrupted. “The note is for Raine al Alharazad. Remember him? He’s become a very powerful figure in Nasheenian politics since the end of the war.”
“Didn’t you kill him?” Inaya said.
Nyx waved her hand. “Details. Can you get us in or not?”
“I can show you the house, certainly. It’s on Rue Clery. But I cannot spare any people.”
“I need a safe house,” Nyx said.
Inaya shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“I could always go find this kid’s mother and tell her where her daughter is.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Inaya, you have no idea what I’ve been through to get here.”
“And you have no idea what I’ve been through to keep this movement together. The entire world doesn’t stop for Nasheenian politics.”
“It doesn’t stop for Ras Tiegan catshit either,” Nyx said. “Your petty rebellion isn’t my problem.”
“Nor is your potential one mine.”
“All right,” Rhys said. “Can we come to some agreement?”
Inaya said, “Rhys, you know what she breaks apart whenever she shows up.”
“I don’t know that things here can get any worse,” Rhys said.
Inaya watched him. She wanted to know what had happened, and why he was running with Nyx again. “We have surveillance on Jolique’s house. I can tell you if anyone came in recently. When would they have been in?”
“Early last night.”
“Easy enough,” Inaya said.
Nyx stepped forward. “Not you,” Inaya said. She motioned to Rhys. “Come back and I’ll show you what we have,” she said.
Rhys exchanged a look with Nyx. Nyx shrugged.
Inaya stepped back into the corridor with Rhys. They walked together through the crowded halls, through coded doors, and a final filter before they reached the communication room.
“This is an impressive setup,” Rhys said when he saw her activate the slide.
“It took many years to build,” Inaya said. “And only a few weeks to destroy.”
“Much of life is like that,” he said.
Inaya called up surveillance on Jolique’s house. “You’re in luck,” she said. “I had a check in at midnight. No one went in or out from dusk to midnight.”
“We’re a few hours from dawn now,” Rhys said. “I suppose they could have moved then.”
“Surely if they were moving a prisoner they would wait for daylight,” Inaya said. “The streets aren’t exactly safe.”
“Then it’s possible we can set up an ambush. Do you have the address?”
Inaya wrote it down for him, and handed it over.
“How long have you been with her?” Inaya asked.
“Just a few days.”
“Where’s Elahyiah?”
Rhys dropped his gaze. “Safe,” he said. “And where is Khos?”
“The same,” she said, and realized then that they had nothing to talk about. They had made their choices.
“Come,” she said, “let’s not keep Nyx from her bloodbath.”
R
hys watched the house from the rooftop of a local bakery. Jolique so Romaud lived six blocks from the church in a walled compound that Nyx had been happy to climb right into. He was astonished at the lack of filters in the city. The architecture was different from anything he’d ever seen; spires and monstrous statues and saints’ niches clotted the city. Everything was built close together, practically on top of each other, with twisted, winding ways that often ended abruptly in walledover doors. He wore a long coat and hat, hopeful the darkness would shield them all a while longer. Safiyah didn’t want to risk holding a glamour and fighting with bugs at the same time unless they had to. In the daylight, a Chenjan and three Nasheenians would stand out like grasshoppers among roaches. Dark clouds and driving rain helped, he supposed. Right now, he was not particularly thankful for the rain, but knew he would be later.
A cloud of red beetles hovered just above his head. He and Ahmed kept a channel open. It was more secure than transceivers, less secure than a com, but served the same purpose.
Rhys was much more skilled with a gun at close range, but Nyx put him above Jolique’s house with a sniper rifle she got from Inaya’s people. It was poorly made; Ras Tiegan, not Tirhani, and he’d only had enough time to tweak the scope and fire off a few practice rounds before they needed to move. It was not his favorite weapon. He was already soaked through and shivering. The gun was slick beneath his fingers. He watched the door through his scope.
They had been sitting an hour with no movement aside from two people entering the bakery beneath him.
“How long are we going to give this, Nyx?” he asked through the beetles.
“As long as it takes,” Nyx replied, her voice tinny.
Of course. Rhys sighed.
Above, the rain continued.
“Hold on,” Nyx said. “Here we go. Southwest.”
Rhys sighted through the scope, sweeping the alley. He saw a group of hooded figures—six large individuals, circling a seventh.
“You want me to take the risk?” Rhys asked.
There was a pause. He waited. This was when he preferred someone else making decisions. He had already told her he wouldn’t kill them. She nearly put Ahmed up here in his stead, until he pointed out that even his worst shot was going to be better than Ahmed’s best.
“You know I’d prefer you killed them,” Nyx said.
“I’m done killing,” Rhys said.
“Fine time to talk morality.”
“The best time,” he said.
“Remind me to buy you a packet of sen-laced tobacco when this is over.”
“If you live? Certainly.”
“Take them down,” Nyx said.
Rhys took aim and shot out the knee of the first figure. It took far too long for him to reorient and retarget as Nyx and Ahmed stepped out of the alley just behind the group, shooting three of the figures at close range. A buzzing wall of hornets came down around the central figure. Rhys got off two more shots, crippling two more people.
He saw Nyx finish off the ones at the back. Rhys shot off the hand of another figure going for a weapon.
Nyx took hold of the one cloaked in the hornets. Rhys heard cursing.
“What have you got?” Rhys said.
“It’s not him,” Nyx said.
Ahmed was at the front of the pack, yanking off the hooded hats they wore.
“Shit,” Nyx said.
“What is it?” Rhys said.
“He’s at the front, bound. You just blew out his fucking knee.
Better than his head,” Rhys said. “Clear out of there. There’s movement coming from the house. We’ll have order keepers on us soon.”
He covered Nyx and Ahmed as they slipped back into the alley with Raine. As they went, he sighted Raine’s head in his scope, and remembered a hot room in Chenja, and the sound of his finger bones breaking under a mallet. A mallet held by the man Nyx was so keen on running across the world to save. For the good of Nasheen.
Rhys took a deep breath. He didn’t have a care for Nasheen. It could be swallowed up tomorrow. But Nyx cared. It was one of the few things she still pretended to care about.
Rhys didn’t take the shot.
“Don’t say I never did anything to help you,” he said.
“What?” Nyx said through the buzzing of the red beetles.
“Nothing,” he said. “You’re clear. I’ll meet you back at the safe house.”
“W
e have him,” Nyx said. “I need a safe room.”
She saw Inaya’s mouth harden as they hauled Raine into her headquarters. She motioned Nyx toward the next room. “This way. Hurry. There’s a way through.”
Inaya brought them down a short flight of stairs and past a few storage rooms. Curious Ras Tiegans watched from the shadows, their own faces obscured by hoods. Too many witnesses for Nyx’s taste, but they didn’t have much of a choice at this point.
Behind her, Ahmed stumbled, so she stepped in and took his place at Raine’s left side. Rhys still trailed behind them. Ahmed leaned against a wall. She saw a long trail of blood behind him. His face seemed drawn. She gritted her teeth and focused on hauling Raine forward.
“Inaya, get somebody to help Ahmed, all right? Safiyah?
Coming, darling,” Safiyah called from behind them. “I’ll get him. Go on.” Inaya unlocked a storage room door and palmed on a light. “In here,”
she said.
A scattering of cloth sacks littered the floor. Nyx flopped Raine down on them. Rhys came up behind her. He was sweating heavily. She saw him wince as he drew up, and clutch at his side.
“You hurt?” she said.
“Just winded,” he said.
“You have a hedge witch or something for Raine?” Nyx said. “His knee’s blown out.”
“I’ll see what I can do. But we don’t have room for you here, Nyx,” Inaya said. “We’re going to be out tomorrow. I can let you stay the night, but not a day longer. You understand? I can’t have any more hell. Not here. Not with everything we still need to do.”
“Got it, sure,” Nyx said. “We just need to get patched up. I promise— we’re gone in the morning.”
Inaya didn’t appear convinced. Nyx couldn’t say she blamed her. “Come with me, Rhys,” Inaya said. She gestured for him to follow.
Nyx gave Raine’s face a good pat. He moaned. “Come on, you fuck. Enough people died to get you here. Wake up. I need some bloody fucking answers and we don’t have much time.”
“Nyx,” he said.
“At least you remember that much.”
“Where are we?”
“A reasonably safe place. For a while, anyway. I need some answers, Raine. I need to know what the fuck is going on.”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Who are they, the ones who took you? Those people we attacked weren’t Nasheenians.”
“I thought you knew.”
“I heard all sorts of stories. First Families, bel dames, Ras Tiegans…”
Raine snorted. “Oh there are all sorts. Ras Tiegans, yes. But there are bel dames involved here, too.”
“No, the bel dames sent me after you.”
He raised his brows. “Impossible.”
“It happened. Bel dames sent me after you.”
“Are you… one of them again?”
“I already told you I’m not.”
“Pardon, Nyx, but I’ve not known you to tell the truth.”
“You always said you could tell when I was lying, just like most folks. So why would I bother?”
Raine winced. His leg was still bleeding badly. Nyx sighed and crouched next to him. She unknotted and reknotted the makeshift tourniquet. He hissed. “We’ll have someone in soon to look at it,” she said.
“I haven’t been this gutted in a long time,” he said. He wheezed.
“Who is it, Raine?”
“My mother,” he said.
Nyx sighed. “Alharazad. That’s worse than I thought. Is Fatima with her in this? Why the fuck did she send us after you, then?”
“No, listen, it’s deeper than that. You should not have come for me. I’m infected.”
“You said that already. What does it mean?”
“I’ve been given some kind of… virus. They brought girls with us. From Ras Tieg. They were harboring some kind of… contagion. Some of them revolted, and were killed. But the rest came north with us, and they… mixed something, their magicians, in Bomani. It could all be so much catshit. I don’t know. I’ve been carted around a long time. It was my own fault. We were finally getting a voice, enough to put them all on edge. Alharazad invited me in to speak about the new government. I took it. And they took me.”
“The bel dames?”
“Yes, but they turned me over to those Ras Tiegans once we came into K hair i.”
“But why here? What the hell is going on?”
“They want me infected, presumably so you’ll kill me?”
“But I wasn’t hired to kill you,” Nyx said. “Maybe somebody in Nasheen can cure it.”
“You understand it will be triggered when I’m killed? I could take a city with me. Maybe more. I don’t even know what the contagion is.”
“Why the fuck would they do something like that?”
“I don’t pretend to know their motives. When they first told me about it, my understanding was that it would go off if I was anywhere near Nasheen. I’m not sure that’s even possible, but I’m no fucking magician. And I’m… I’m just very tired. But listen. Whatever has been done… You can’t take me back to Nasheen, Nyx.”
Nyx rubbed her face. Of course not. That would be too easy. “Raine, I’d like nothing better than to see you rot here in some moldy little shit cell. But I can’t do that. The boys back home are on the verge of all-out rebellion. They’ll burn down Mushtallah if you don’t come back in one piece.”
“How is it they didn’t object to a bel dame going after me, then? Surely they’d all think as I did, that you’re here to kill me.”
“I’m not a bel dame, Raine. Fuck, how many times do I have to fucking tell people that? Nobody’s stupid enough to believe Fatima would send a bel dame to bring you back alive.”
“Fatima… Fatima Kosan? The high councilwoman.”
“You know her?”
Raine grimaced. “Oh, I certainly do.”
“She not a fan?”
“She tried to have me killed last year.”
“What?”
“Before the Queen started talks about the new government. She’s had me under surveillance since then.”
“Well… I can’t say that killing you hasn’t crossed my mind, either.”