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The storyteller finished up, and the kids all burst into applause and started begging for another one. I slumped down next to Marjani.
“I didn’t think I’d ever come back here,” she said out of nowhere. “It’s fu
I blushed. “I don’t dance like a queen.”
“Neither did she.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes longer. Naji seemed real intent on the surface of his wine.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
My room was beautiful, with a soft canopied bed and windows that faced the jungle, and a huge porcelain washtub that the servants filled with cool, jasmine-scented water when they brought me into the room. First thing I did was take a bath. Sea baths will keep you clean enough, but nothing beats fresh water to slough all the salt off your skin.
The servants brought clothes, too, a thin cotton dress and a narrow gold belt that I cinched around my waist. I combed my hair out and sat on the window ledge and looked down at the wash of green roiling up against the city’s walls. Papa’d told me once that he knew a man who had crossed the Jokja jungle and came out the most powerful sorcerer either the Empire or the Free Countries had ever seen. I’d never decided if I believed him or not.
For a minute, I wondered what Papa was doing. Had the Hariris gone after him first, back when I was crossing the desert with Naji? That wasn’t usually the way of things, but you never knew with a clan so enamored of the land. Or had Papa and Mama even heard about what I did, to Tarrin, to his parents? Mama hadn’t used her magic to track me, at least not that I could tell, although I might have been too far away from them for it work. Or maybe they just didn’t care.
The wind blowing in through the windows changed. I noticed it as a prickle on my skin. The hairs raised up on my arms. A chill crept into the room.
I fumbled around on the bed, trying to find the knife I’d tossed there while I was taking my bath. The wind blew harder, and then a mist crept in – a northern mist, nothing I should have seen in Jokja.
I touched the charm around my neck.
“Ana
I whirled around, knife out, heart racing. She stood beside the window, and she was dressed like a Jokja lady. But she had the same mean starry eyes and the same cold voice and the same swirl of mist where her feet should have been.
“Get out of here,” I said.
“Still protecting him?” Echo drifted forward, bringing the cold damp in with her. “You’ve come up in the world since last we spoke.”
I readied my knife.
She floated over to my bed and sank into it.
“But your affection for the assassin appears to be waning.”
I glared at her, tensed my fingers against my knife.
She smiled hard and cold at me. “The offer still stands,” she said. “Take us to him, and we’ll grant you a thousand boons.”
“Why?” I said. “Why do you want him so bad? Just cause he bested your lord?”
She looked at me, calm and implacable. “That’s exactly why. My lord was humiliated by that particular defeat. We don’t like being defeated, particularly by humans.” She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose in disgust. “And we don’t like being humiliated either.”
“Yeah? So you’re just go
“But I can’t touch you,” she said. “Because of that thing around your neck.” She tilted her head. “Even after all the hurt he’s caused you, you still wear it?”
“Apparently.”
“So coy.” She smiled again. “And as point of fact, the assassin has not defeated me. He’s merely hidden himself with some silly human charm. It took three years by your reckoning to find him before – without anyone having to betray him, even. So don’t think your refusal will actually save him. It only delays the inevitable.” She laughed. “And rest assured that when I find him without your help – and I will – you will not be granted a thousand boons. And not even his pathetic human magic will protect you.”
I waited for her to laugh again, or give me that infuriating mocking smile of hers, but she didn’t. She just stared at me with a calm, placid expression and I thought about how he’d refused to smile for me like kissing me was the worst thing that could happen. I thought about how I didn’t let myself think his wanting me was the result of a spell, how it didn’t even cross my mind when it should’ve.
I thought about how he made me stupid.
“You’re considering it,” she said. “I can see it in your eyes.”
“I ain’t considering nothing.” No, I’d been thinking about the manticore, and how dangerous everyone said that was, making a deal with her, and yet I’d managed to get away with my life intact.
I didn’t want to hand the world over to the Mists, but maybe I could still hand over Naji, and save the world myself.
The door to my room slammed open, and there stood Naji with his sword and pirate’s coat. He gave me a look so full of dismay it was like he could read my mind.
I jumped to my feet, heat rushing to my face.
Echo stiffened. She sniffed at the air, jerked her head around the room.
“I can smell him,” she hissed. She didn’t sound like nothing human. “He’s here.”
“No, he ain’t,” I said.
“Don’t lie to me!” She slid forward, growling and spitting. “I told you, Ana
Naji streaked forward and sliced her clean in half with the sword. She dispersed into mist. The room was so cold my teeth chattered.
Naji sat on the edge of my bed, his eyes staring at the space where she had been. I wrapped my arms around my chest. Slowly, the cold leaked out, the warmth came back in.
“You were going to betray me,” Naji said.
“What!” My face got hot. “No, I wasn’t.” But the lie turned to ash in my mouth and I didn’t try to deny it again.
Naji looked up at me. I expected anger but his expression was flat and empty. “Yes, you were. I could… tell.”
“You could tell? How the hell could you tell?” I shook all over, staring at him. And then his voice was in my head.
Because we’re co
I shrieked and jumped back, slamming my hands over my ears. Naji’s mouth hadn’t moved. He hadn’t spoken. But I heard him.
I’d been hearing him, on and off, speaking when he wasn’t speaking. I’d caught glimpses of his feelings. Not all the time. Just little enough that I thought it was my imagination, that I thought I was feeling my own emotions.
“Do you understand what happened during the sea battle?” Naji asked.
“I got shot through the belly.” My voice trembled.
“Before that.”
I closed my eyes. My arms tingled where I’d sliced open my skin.
“Yes,” Naji said. “You gave me your blood. I tried to tell you…” His voice dropped, and I remembered. He was dying on the deck, choking out that my giving him blood would co
“When you gave me your blood,” he said. “That magic… it drew us together. It’s ack’mora, not northern magic like the curse.” He took a deep breath. “You wanting to betray me is like me wanting to betray myself. I had to fight… to fight from–”