Instead of going to prayers, the Rebellion gathered in a small tent propped up against one of the few remaining walls of what used to be Sazi. The last of the daylight filtered red through the tent casting a flame-like glow across our faces.
With all of us here, it was like a faraway echo of something familiar. Of our old camp and all the times we’d gathered like this to make a plan. Except now, everyone looked like shadows of themselves. Ahmed, Shazad and Delila were worn ragged. Smudged with pain and exhaustion, and something else, too: the first-hand knowledge of the suffering the Sultan was putting this country through. Of what one man could do to all of us from on high. Of what it would mean for those who lived if we lost this war, those we left behind under the rule of a man who had sent hordes of people to Eremot.
We were like a faded picture in a book that had lost a lot of its gilt.
‘Do you think we should take the new recruits with us?’ Ahmed asked.
‘I don’t think we can afford to turn away any extra able bodies,’ Shazad said.
‘Even if they’re extra bodies to feed and supply?’ I could hear the question Ahmed was really asking: Even if we might just be leading them to their deaths?
Our general cast a fleeting glance my way before she carried on quickly. ‘Assuming we can shut that machine down then this is a fight that’s going to be won on numbers.’
‘Hell, we might need them before we get into Iliaz. What with the new foreign friends Bilal has been making.’ It slipped out irritably, though I hadn’t meant it to. Rahim and Ahmed both looked at me blankly. They hadn’t been gone all that long, but a whole lot of Miraji had changed in that time. I’d been leading this rebellion, and now I had to give that power back to Ahmed. I’d thought it would be a relief. I guess I’d gotten a little used to the weight while he’d been gone. ‘Things have changed while you’ve been in Eremot. And you know, it might not kill you from time to time to talk to someone who knows about this desert.’ The words were coming out in a torrent now, my accent getting thicker as I went. ‘For one, I reckon I could’ve told you how the people here would react to us returning without Noorsham. We might’ve spared Delila needing to save all our necks. And another thing I can tell you is that Iliaz is crawling with Albish. They’re looking to make an alliance with the Gallan and move on Izman together. And the way I see it, if two of our enemies turn on us at once, we’re done for. Whether we can take that throne or not. We won’t hold it.’ Ahmed listened to me, pressing a knuckle against a spot at his hairline as I told them what they had missed. That to get to Izman we would have to get through Leyla’s inventions and our foreign enemies. That Iliaz was occupied. I pointed at Rahim. ‘Your Lord Bilal is helping, too, giving them passage through the mountains, and if we don’t get this right, we’re going to find ourselves facing more enemies than we can handle before we even see the city.’
‘My men are following orders,’ Rahim said defensively. ‘They’re not traitors to their country.’
‘We’re all traitors to our country,’ Jin pointed out. He was sitting with one knee propped up, his arm slung lazily over it, but his focus wasn’t to be mistaken. He didn’t trust Rahim. Not even if Ahmed and Delila were treating him as their brother. Not even if he was Jin’s brother, too. ‘We need them to be traitors for us. What happens if they’re not as loyal to you as you think they are?’
‘Why don’t we worry about that when we get there?’ I interjected, breaking up this fight before it could start. ‘How the hell are we going to get there?’
‘We use one of our new friends from Eremot,’ Shazad said, without missing a beat. ‘Haytham Al-Fawzi. He is – was – the Emir of Tiamat before he started sheltering rebel sympathisers and wound up jailed for it. His brother is ruling in Tiamat now, but the city belongs to him, rightfully. I reckon we can take it back.’
‘And it’s a seaport,’ Jin completed, understanding. ‘You want to sail to Iliaz from Tiamat.’
‘It will be easier than travelling north on foot,’ Ahmed said, trying to make peace. ‘We can dock in Ghasab and get to Iliaz from there.’
‘I’m not so sure I want to go back to Iliaz,’ Sam interjected, making sure Shazad heard what he was saying. And how could she not – we were all cramped so close together in here that our knees were touching. ‘What with how I almost died there.’ He puffed out his chest a little.
‘Half the people here have almost died in Iliaz,’ Rahim informed him tersely.
‘Amani only almost died because you shot her,’ Jin interjected, making Sam snort under his breath. I glanced around the circle, catching Shazad’s eye roll as I did. But she wasn’t who I’d been looking for. I realised that without meaning to, I’d been seeking out Hala. Expecting her to interject with something that would cut the bickering boys down to size.
‘The only people who aren’t coming to Iliaz are people who are behaving like children,’ Shazad snapped. ‘Because I don’t train children in my armies.’ A quick silence fell over the tent as Shazad took control. ‘Now, here’s what we’re going to do.’
Chapter 29
The city of Tiamat never stood a chance.
It took us almost two weeks of walking to get to the sea. It would’ve taken half that time if we hadn’t stopped quite so often.
When the Rebellion was somewhere near recovered from Eremot, we finally made ready to move. We packed as much as we could carry, as much as Sazi could spare, splitting it between the twins and the people who were on foot.
Finally we were as ready to leave as we were ever going to be.
But not all of us were leaving.
Tamid decided to stay behind. I’d known he wouldn’t be coming with us, but it was unsettling to walk away without him all the same.
‘You could still come with us, you know,’ I said on the morning we prepared to leave. ‘We could use someone to patch us up on the road.’ He was good at what he did. I’d watched him bandage Rahim’s bloody nose a few days past, when Jin had hit him in the face as they were demonstrating something to our new recruits. Ten days in Sazi and those two weren’t getting along any better.
‘I belong here, Amani.’ Tamid leaned heavily on his false leg on the unsteady ground of the mountain face. ‘I always have.’ I could tell his mind was elsewhere. ‘You don’t have to do this, you know,’ he said finally. ‘Go back there and …’ Die. He couldn’t bring himself to say the word. ‘If you stayed—’
‘I have to go, Tamid,’ I cut him off. ‘I belong with them.’ I offered him a wan smile to take the sting out off the words. ‘I always have.’