‘I always knew you had a soft spot for me.’ He clasped my fingers, letting me pull him up.
‘Only for your knack for getting us out of a tight spot.’ I let go of his hand. ‘Come on, we need to keep moving.’
Sam was still getting his bearings after nearly dying, but his gaze flicked quickly around from me to Jin to Tamid, who was still refusing to look at anyone from where he sat.
‘Where’s the princess?’ he asked.
Ah … Leyla.
Jin’s traitor sister was the one thing he and I were able to agree on. She was a burden to our rescue mission, at best, a liability at worst.
So we’d left her. And I’d scrawled out a note for Bilal that I’d handed to one of his soldiers to give to him.
Take care of her. She might be your last line of defence if the Sultan comes knocking.
Leyla might be trouble for us, but she would make a decent shield for Iliaz as a hostage. She might keep the mountain from being burned off the map before we got back.
‘She was extra weight,’ was all I said in answer to Sam.
‘And if there’s one advantage to travelling without a whole army,’ Jin said, tossing his compass from one hand to another, the needle still pointing due south, ‘it’s being able to move quickly.’
Chapter 16
Flying got boring after a while.
After the initial rush of leaping into the air, the desert shrinking below, the wind whistling an excited tune in our ears as we soared higher above the ground than wingless creatures were ever meant to … after all that wore off, it was just a whole lot of waiting. Hot sun tracking our every mile, arms cramping from clinging to Maz’s back, the wind drowning out any chance to talk as we headed south, following Jin’s compass. We flew further west than the compass told us to so that we could fly close to the mountains that ran along Miraji’s border. It was better than heading due south across the desert, risking running out of water before we found Eremot.
We were headed south without an army, or a plan, or any idea what we were facing. But the way I saw it, there wasn’t a whole lot else to do now except follow Jin’s compass and see what we found at the end. Every day we wasted was another day our friends were imprisoned. Maybe in danger. Maybe dying.
It was the end of our first day of travelling when I noticed the landscape was starting to look familiar. A break in the thankless stretch of desert, a break in the endless view of golden sand and blue skies, a jagged break in the ground: the Dev’s Valley.
My heart skipped as I craned over Maz’s back, peering down below us. We were skimming over the northernmost edge of it; it was the same path that we would take home if we were coming back from the north. Returning from a mission for Ahmed. With Shazad next to me. Because somewhere far below us, hidden in the twists and turns of those canyons, was what used to be our home, the wreckage of the rebel camp.
The desperate reckless urge hit me to ask Maz to take us down. Maybe if he could just land in the valley we could go home again. I could shoo away all the sand that I’d buried the camp in when we had to escape and unearth it like some ancient relic. We could all be safe again, for a little while. But that was foolish. We were too far from that home now.
Instead we stopped near the city of Fahali just as the sun was beginning to set. As close as we dared land near civilisation. A side effect of escaping by the skin of our teeth was that more than just Leyla had been left behind in Iliaz. Food, weapons, water skins … a whole lot of things that we were bound to need on the way south.
‘Sam and I will go,’ Jin said, counting out the small stash of money we had. ‘It’s not safe for Demdji these days.’
‘Because you both think that being from halfway around the world is less conspicuous?’ I stretched my legs, sore from a day of gripping on to Maz’s feathered back.
‘I mean …’ Sam scratched the top of his head – ‘I’d say I’m definitely less conspicuous than blue skin and blue hair.’
‘Hey!’ Izz said, even as Maz, in the shape of a large lizard, managed to look offended.
‘I ought to go,’ I argued, glancing at the city on the horizon. ‘So long as I don’t look anyone in the eye it ought to be fine.’
‘Right,’ Jin said, flipping a two-louzi coin along his knuckles. ‘When’s the last time you got in any trouble when left to your own devices?’ But he flipped the coin in my direction all the same. I caught it out of the air as he handed the rest of our money over. He knew I was right. Foreigners in this part of the desert during a war would arouse suspicion.
I paused as I rewrapped my sheema.
Tamid was unstrapping his false leg, sitting on the ground. ‘None of us knows where the compass is leading.’ I could tell he knew I was talking to him, even though he wasn’t looking at me. ‘This might be the closest thing to civilisation we see for a while. You could stay here if you wanted. When this is all over there’ll be trains running again, back down to Dustwalk …’
‘No.’ He didn’t look up. ‘The compass points south and south is the way to Dustwalk. I’ll keep going with you as far as I need to get home.’
Home. If home was Dustwalk instead of the Dev’s Valley, that was the last home I wanted to go back to.
*
Fahali wasn’t just any city. It was the first city that had knelt to Ahmed, after we’d saved it from being annihilated by Noorsham. It was one of our cities – or it used to be. It had been occupied by the Gallan for nearly two decades before that. Now, with the news that Ahmed was dead, it was an uncertain city. As I walked through the streets, I could feel the unease. News of impending war and invasion must’ve reached them. Everyone kept their eyes down, moving quickly, as if they were afraid to be outside too long.
I kept my own eyes to the ground as I navigated the city, my sheema pulled over my face. There were people here who would know me even if I didn’t stand out like Jin or the twins would.
This city knew me. And once I’d known it pretty damn well, too. But it had changed since we were last here. The streets were filled with women in rags, begging, and children running around barefoot. Where the sprawling market ought to have been, the streets were empty, shops boarded up.
I felt a tug on my clothes. I snapped around quickly, grabbing the small hand that had been trying to find its way into my pockets. It was a little girl, her eyes big in her gaunt face.
‘I wasn’t doing anything!’ The boldness of the lie was somewhat undercut by the panic in her expression.
‘It’s all right.’ I dropped to my knees, though I didn’t let her go, in case she fled. ‘You think you could tell me what’s happening here?’