Page 67 of The Jasad Crown
The Mufsid gave Arin his back and spoke no more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SYLVIA
If you don’t try using your magic before we leave, we may as well order everyone in the mountains to line up on this cliff and start leaping into Suhna Sea,” Efra said.
“Interesting idea.” I gestured toward the waves smashing against the side of the mountain. “Perhaps you should provide a demonstration.”
“You two bicker like infants,” Namsa sighed. She adjusted the blanket beneath her, surrounded by the clothes I’d helped her collect from the clothesline earlier in the morning. “I thought I’d managed to avoid child-rearing.”
Efra strolled in a loop around the canyon between our mountain and the next, pacing to the foot of the refrozen lake and back. “The informant will be here in a matter of hours. If she gives us the news we’re expecting, we will need to mobilize our team toward Omal immediately. We can’t afford to sit around and coax her sweetly.”
My nails bit into my palms. Tombs below, but I loathed it when Efra spoke like I was some disagreeable pet and not ten feet and one insult away from incinerating him.
The worst part was he had a point. They were anticipating a report from one of their spies about the kingdoms’ reactions to Galim’s Bend. It had been a little over three weeks since the cages were opened. Since our options for sneaking into the Omal palacerelied on trade routes staying open and minimal sentries along the border, everyone was on edge, waiting to see whether Queen Hanan would follow Sultana Vaida’s example and shut down access to her kingdom.
Efra had spun us into an impossible situation and then had the sheer gall to accuse me of trying to sabotage the Urabi’s plans by withholding my magic.
“You chose to announce our presence to the kingdoms by releasing centuries-old monsters and destroying an entire village, and you’re surprised the other rulers have taken up defensive positions?” Anger, bitter and wild, thrashed in my belly. “I follow fools in this mountain, don’t I?”
Efra bristled. “How many other options did you leave us with?”
My hands curled at my sides. The chafe of the Urabi’s demands had scraped me bloody, a persistent stone sanding off my skin, and it was only a matter of time before I reacted.
After a minute, my fists loosened. The fury dissipated, muffled beneath the resignation settling around my shoulders.
I hadn’t been taught how to lead. I understood next to nothing about the right way to rule.
What I knew better than anyone was how to obey.
“What would you like my magic to do, Efra?” I asked, toneless. “Choose your trick.”
Namsa frowned, rising to peer at me with concern. Efra did not bat an eye. “Summon the kitmer again.”
“You do not have to do anything you don’t wish to,” Namsa urged.
My smile, cold and bloodless, propelled the Jasadi a step back. Her well-meaning nonsense bothered me more than Efra’s barbs, sometimes. At least he did not dip his blade in honey before swinging it at my head.
“A kitmer,” I repeated. His interest in having me call forth akitmer bordered on obsession. I had done it exactly once, and it had not been voluntary.
I faced the sea, drawing its stinging air deep into my chest. With the cuffs, my magic had reacted to threats against the people I cared about. To threats against Jasad.
Not a perfect starting point, but as good as any other.
Dropping my chin, braid heavy between the brackets of my shoulders, I thought of the kitmer raging through the Victor’s Ball. The streak of silver and gold as it shot above the Citadel, a beacon in the night sky.
Sefa and Marek could be anywhere. I had no idea if they were alive, if they were safe. They had been perfectly content in Mahair before I upended their lives. I should have stopped them when they decided to follow me into Nizahl. I should have forced them away.
A lazy heat spilled in my veins, thawing the tips of my chilled fingers.
Dawoud would have left Dar al Mansi if it weren’t for me. He would be here with his niece, probably leading the Aada. Taking his tea in the evenings with a piece of cream kunafa or basboosa, despite how I would harangue him about his health.
The heat crawled over my arms.
It was because of me that—
The woman screamed, clawing at the hand I’d wrapped around her throat.
